very new to this but tentatively submitting this as an idea:
I was a child on my daddy’s knee
I could not hear what he tried to tell me
I did not care that he had walked through the night
I was too young to hear of his fight
I was a teen in my daddy’s face
I did not treat him with care or with grace
I disrespected that man before me
I could not bend and he was angry with me.
He don’t need a flag and he don’t need a band
He needs a son who can understand
He don’t need parades and he don’t need a gun
He needs your respect for the things that he done.
I found a girl and a place of my own
Then my dad helped me build her a home
He showed me a hammer, he showed me a saw
But he could show me the things that he saw
Along then comes my son and it hits like a stone
I know now how my dad felt all alone
I never seen but now I feel what Dad saw
Beach, paddy or desert, his soul was raw
He don’t need a flag and he don’t need a band
He needs a son who can understand
He don’t need parades and he don’t need a gun
He needs your respect for the things that he done.
Dad’s hair is silver and his heart is gold
He never faltered, he carried the load
He can straighten his back and look in your eyes
He’ll stare down the Reaper on the day that he dies
Steve E