You Are Me and I Am You

All your paintings on the wall
I observed them recently like never before
In many of them a figure stands all alone
A deer drinking water or a man fishing in a boat
And the florals are abundant and seem to seek inner peace
Though you do paint what's around you and the things you see
You're my old friend, and you're a great, great painter
And in each painting tranquility is captured

I noticed others with a pattern of things in fours
Ducks floating by, boats sailing along the shore
And all of them the number stays the same
Are those four ducks your children drifting away?
You live all alone in that big old three bedroom house
We watch Turner Classics all night long, with all those bedrooms, you sleep on the couch
Cars and ambulances whizzing by the living room so loud
On the way to the hospital down the highway

Do you know that of you I'm so proud?
Though in many ways when I was young you were not around
Do you know that you're one of my very best friends?
We've been through it all haven't we? And yet now on each other we can depend
I don't know what it means to be born in the depression era
Eight siblings and a father who took his paychecks to the bar and spent them
Don't know what it meant to eat certain animal parts
Or to lose a sister to stomach cancer or a brother in the war

There's just one painting of yours I keep on my wall
Alexis Argüello and Aaron Pryor in the heat of their bloody brawl
You painted that one for your old friend Billy in 1985
And then you gave it to me when Billy died
Life's a fight for all of us isn't it
That's my favorite painting you ever did
It's the only painting I have hanging on my wall and that's no bullshit
It captures love and courage and true friendship
I don't know what it means to walk in your shoes
Or to be turning 83 in a month or two
You called me once and you said you were feeling blue
And you asked me do I ever feel like that too
I said yeah many shades of it since I was two
And you laughed and I laughed and in that moment I knew
That I'm most definitely a part of you
That in many ways you are me and I am you
Got a big three bedroom house full of antiques just like you
And I need my alone time just like you do
And I'm funny and easy going just like you are too
But unfortunately I've got the same quick temper and the same short fuse like you do
On this October morning I'm feeling a little blue
But not nearly as blue as I'll be when I won't be able to call you
I'm so grateful you've been on this planet as long as you have
And I'm so proud to be able to call you Dad