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....
Copyright © | Year Posted 2019

Poem

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Foster Avatar
December 3, 2019 at 9:31 AM
Beautiful... Ann
Krutsinger Avatar
December 4, 2019 at 12:26 AM
Thank you Ann. I had forgotten this one and was glad to read it again!
Fairchild Avatar
March 4, 2019 at 3:04 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!
Krutsinger Avatar
March 4, 2019 at 10:47 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".
Dietrich Avatar
February 28, 2019 at 6:53 PM
this has such emotion in it, Caren. A wonderful tribute to your dad. Despite the faults, greatly loved.
Krutsinger Avatar
February 28, 2019 at 10:52 PM
Thank you Andrea. It was such an easy write. It just threw itself down onto a page.
Michael Avatar
February 28, 2019 at 6:15 PM
And rightly so...if was as you described...a man...a father...a human being...I would miss him too
Krutsinger Avatar
February 28, 2019 at 10:53 PM
He was something else. Whenever I miss him I take his flannel shirt out of my closet and either smell it or wear it. It smells just like him!
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