Jun 18, 2021

A Father’s Day Message That Could Even Be Verse

In the tradition of Hallmark (without its excellence)…

By Ed Goldman

This year, I think, I won’t succumb

To Hallmark Dad’s-Day rhetoric.

My dad’s long gone

But I’ve gone on

And find each rhyming letter sick.

Your only child won’t write to you

For reasons still mysterious?

Although it’s hard:

By now, a card

Should not make you delirious.

Edgy Cartoon

Father and Daughter (Jessica Laskey): Paris, 2010

Yes, fatherhood’s an awesome thing

But comes with some iniquities

Like wounds still sore

From years before

—So old they are antiquities.

Our lives are but a moment’s run,

We waste our time belaboring

Too many nights

On petty slights

And sour becomes our flavoring.

The best job that I ever took

Without a net or bother would

Cause sleeplessness

Sometimes. But this

Came with the role of fatherhood.

To ev’ry father near and far,

Who ever had a role in this

Most troubling dish

Called “kids,” I wish

You joy and some condolences.

Looking for a Great Gift?

For now, as I recall the past,

With love (I hope not snarkily),

I hope this verse

Was not too terse

Or came out too Hallmark-ily.

Ed Goldman's column appears almost every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A former daily columnist for the Sacramento Business Journal, as well as monthly columnist for Sacramento Magazine and Comstock’s Business Magazine, he’s the author of five books, two plays and one musical (so far).