The Letters Left Behind

Cardboard boxes

on the dusty floor

Sorting through the coat hangers by the door

Found a wooden box

beneath a heavy winter coat

Fifty hand-drawn envelopes with a cursive note

One for my high school

graduation day

One for when I finally moved away

He knew his time was short

before he had to go

So he left his voice in ink to watch his young boy

grow

And he wrote, 'I'm sorry that I couldn't hold your hand'

And he wrote, 'I hope you grew to be a better man'

Every single milestone that he'd miss

Sealed up with a father's parting kiss (mmmmm)

I held the letter

meant for my wedding day

And the one for when my own child was on the way

I sat down on the closet floor

and started to cry

Feeling forty years of misses

pass me by

I still have you here

in black and blue

(oh daddy)