What could I have done
To make you more happy
To be a good son?
You say that I've failed you and wasted my youth
and we've spent too many years fighting
after I left you and went away on my own
now I find you in a hospital bed dying
Once you told me to be tough, you told be to be a man
When all I wanted was some understanding
Why couldn't you just listen, why couldn't you hear
When all I wanted was a hugging?
I never wanted all the battles we fought
I never wanted to leave you and Mom
I flew off into the world and made my own mistakes
And now I wish that things could have been different
And now here we are, with you in a hospital bed
Father O Father what do we do now?
The anguish I carry, I cannot reveal
for I fear it will surely destroy you
What could I have done better, why couldn't we be friends
In a cold insensitive world
Where men must be so terrible to each other
Passing our pain to each generation?
Father O Father why did it have to be this way?
I thought that we might make some peace about this someday
But our time may be shorter than we knew
And I wish that I could have told all this to you.