Sometimes sons follow their father’s vocation, as my friend Rick did. Sometimes children choose different paths than those taken by their parents. I am a child in the latter category.

My Parent's Aspirations

My father loved the sense of words;
my mother was a teacher.
Both were once enamored
that I'd turn into a preacher.

It must have disappointed them
yet seldom did they show it,
when, of all small consolations,
I turned out to be a poet!

Next poem: On a Bicycle

Author: Jerry Dan Deutschendorf
from: Red Earth Whisperings
Part III: Family and Friends