Home » Poems » Caren Krutsinger » I Am Standing Ready

I Am Standing Ready

I am standing ready. Your coat I will not wash 
Until I see your eyes, for it smells like you.
I need to take a whiff of it so I can remember.

I am standing ready to see you walk into the house,
To swing your grandchildren up into the air,
To hear your laugh again.
To watch you smother your food in ketchup
Making my mother, your wife, cringe.

I am standing ready to have you smoke in the house.
I would not say a word this time, knowing it is only for a bit.
I am standing ready
To hear you use inappropriate language, and to become
irritated when the children pick it up.
I am standing ready to see your smile,
which is also my smile.

I am standing ready to hear your stories
from Heaven, to find out what you have been
doing for the past nine years, Daddy.
I am standing ready, 
For I miss you so....

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Ann Foster

Date: 12/3/2019 9:31:00 AM

Beautiful... Ann

Caren Krutsinger
Date: 12/4/2019 12:26:00 AM

Thank you Ann. I had forgotten this one and was glad to read it again!

Andrew Fairchild

Date: 3/4/2019 3:04:00 AM

This is SO sweet! And the lines 'I am standing ready/To hear you use inappropriate language, and to become/irritated when the children pick it up' have me rolling on the floor, laughing! What a great Daddy!

Caren Krutsinger
Date: 3/4/2019 10:47:00 AM

He was a blast, so much fun he had us in stitches when he was home for supper which was not often as he was a salesman his whole life, traveling place to place selling Fuller Brush, Life Insurance, and last but not least, furs in the fur district in New York. He was known as the "coyote man".