Daddy said I had to register
For school all by myself.
“You can write now, hon,” he said,
“So do it by yourself.”
The teacher stopped to help me out
As she knelt there by my side.
“What is this word?” I asked of her
“Father’s occupation,” she replied.
“Where does he work?” she asked me then,
And I told her – proud I knew.
“What does he do there?” she asked me next
“He builds houses and mansions, too.”
She wrote down “Carpenter” in that blank;
“What’s his income?” she inquired.
” I don’t know,” I told her then;
She asked, “When was he hired?”
I must have looked a little scared
Because she smiled, “Don’t fret;
Just take this home to him and ask
Then bring it back,” she said.
I took it home to ask my Dad
And he took the paper to read.
“What is this” he sternly asked
As he looked down at me.
‘I didn’t write that, Daddy,” I said
As he pointed to the word.
“I ain’t no carpenter,” he told me then
In a voice I’d never heard.
“Erase that word right now, and write
The word “laborer,” he stated.
“A carpenter is a man who’s trained,
And I’m uneducated.”
I wrote the word in, sure it meant
The one thing I always knew:
My Daddy could make anything,
And build nice houses, too!
Copyright © 1999 by moleta ruth mccarter. All rights reserved.
