One couldn’t exactly say that/

Daddy was a man of peace/

But I think he was tired and weary/

of fighting for his humanity/

as a Black man/

he retired to defend his house and land/

wife and children/

having seen the world by boat/

the last movie he ever saw was the day/

President Kennedy was killed/

it was announced in the theater/

he took his small daughter home/

and refused to see another movie/

never went to restaurants/

sat by the window on the porch with a bat by the door/

and defended the neighborhood/

I watched him shout at some guys carrying a TV looking odd/

they had robbed an apartment/

dropped the set and ran/

he saved some things/

he may have saved some lives/

but he was tired/

weary of defending his humanity/

and sad/

always sad/