When the smile eventually cracks his face
It’s something we attentively all embrace
With crude awakening glint in his eye
Those blue sapphires twinkle apace
We listen intently as the story unfurls
And cringe internally as the language curls

Now waiting patiently for the punchline
We know it’s going to be good, perhaps sublime!
With words spoken from between the canals
A true Liberty man is never banal
Rupture roars as the penny is dropped
We side glance each other, our breathing has stopped

A song is for ever awaiting to be sung
But requires some lubrication before it’s freedom
And then in amazement we listen with glee
As another verse oozes between the mountains and sea
Perhaps it’s familiar but very often it’s old
From times long forgotten waiting to be told

Our Dad, hard as nails but kinder than you know
Has lived a live focused on fun and furrow
Not always the most talkative but never short of a tale
And always the grumpiest to get going again
With hands made of leather and muscles abound
His life was handed over to others to ground

Held in high esteem since I was a child
It strikes me as insufferable his was denied
So making it up he crunches his face
Into old man grimaces to children new apace
And crumpled 50 notes are shoved into hands
That will remember for ever their dear old Granddad