Denial

To my son Tommy,

Though other people perceive me as the nerdy type that tends to math and science instead of literature and prose, I do have my poetic side show up every now and then.

Denial by Leo Downey
(after mowing his lawn before Labor Day with his forty year old body that now aches)

I found three brown leaves today as I mowed my lawn.
Just a stark reminder that the care free days of summer are almost gone.
No longer are the days filled with barbecue and beer.
Take heed my friends because autumn is here.
Time to prepare for the winter days ahead.
Time to accept that the flowers will soon be dead.
Three brown fallen leaves, three more than the day before.
Just to let me know that summer is gone for sure.
I also found three gray hairs today, three more than the day before.
And there is no significance in that...what so ever!

Okay, so I may need some work before I rival Shelley and Byron. But no one says you have to be good at poetry to have fun with it. This attempt is better than the limericks I usually come up with that I have to save to share for later in your life, mainly because I rhyme the word "luck" often in those drunken attemps at Irish prose.

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo