8. Home Run Derby
(Daddy’s Lullaby)
A weary father thinks back on the events of the day, and the satisfaction of watching his boys and girl play.
I wrote this song watching from the porch as my boys played an informal baseball game, just the two of them. My wife was very sick at that time, and the days were long. But for a moment watching the kids play, the world was right. In the original draft, I included the line “the 5th of May” to include my daughter’s birthday. That way she could be in the poem along with the boy’s story. I chose a Robert Frost structure to the poem, “ a snowy walk in the woods” and later included a verse with girl’s playing, and sharing—boys and girls do play differently; both fun to watch.
Jim
