Father's Day

Stuart Holmes Coleman

19 August 2015

Father's Day

My mother used to say
she didn't know why she
carried me for nine months
when my father could have

spat me out in one day.

Indeed it is hard to tell
our childhood pictures apart.

But we chose different lives--

he was a drummer boy
leading the marching band

and I was a surfer boy
searching for waves of change.

He became a preacher

a civil rights leader

and a father of four.

I became a teacher

writer and reformer
with no kids of my own.

As different as we are

I know we share the same
fragile heart and brittle bones.

©Stuart H. Coleman

Image Father and Son Assess the Surf, Kotu Beach, Gambia www.iaincampbellphotography.com