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Father
by
Edgar Guest


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My father knows the proper way
  The nation should be run;
He tells us children every day
  Just what should now be done.
He knows the way to fix the trusts,
  He has a simple plan;
But if the furnace needs repairs,
  We have to hire a man.

My father, in a day or two
  Could land big thieves in jail;
There's nothing that he cannot do,
  He knows no word like "fail."
"Our confidence" he would restore,
  Of that there is no doubt;
But if there is a chair to mend,
  We have to send it out.

All public questions that arise,
  He settles on the spot;
He waits not till the tumult dies,
  But grabs it while it's hot.
In matters of finance he can
  Tell Congress what to do;
But, O, he finds it hard to meet
  His bills as they fall due.

It almost makes him sick to read
  The things law-makers say;
Why, father's just the man they need,
  He never goes astray.
All wars he'd very quickly end,
  As fast as I can write it;
But when a neighbor starts a fuss,
  'Tis mother has to fight it.

In conversation father can
  Do many wondrous things;
He's built upon a wiser plan
  Than presidents or kings.
He knows the ins and outs of each
  And every deep transaction;
We look to him for theories,
  But look to ma for action.

This poem is in the public domain.

 


Edgar Guest (1881 - 1959)  was born in England,  but moved with his family to Detroit, Michigan, when he was ten years old. He worked for more than sixty years at the Detroit Free Press, publishing his first poem at the age of seventeen, then going on to become a reporter and columnist whose work was featured in hundreds of newspapers around the country. Edgar is said to have written some 11,000 poems during his lifetime, most of it sentimental, short, upbeat verse. Critics often derided his work, but America adored him. He was known as the "People's Poet," served as Michigan's poet laureate, hosted a long-running radio show and TV show, and published more than twenty books.

 

 


Post New Comment:
ElizabethP:
Wonderful. :-)
Posted 06/14/2016 09:47 AM


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