My Father

My father always promised me

That we would live in France

We'd go boating on the Seine

And I would learn to dance

We lived in Ohio then

He worked in the mines

On his dreams like boats we knew

We'd sail in time

My sisters all grew up went away

To Denver and Cheyenne

Marrying their grownup dreams

The lilacs and the man

I stayed behind the youngest still

Only danced alone

Hopingg, hoping that my father's dreams

Would someday take me home

I live in Paris now

My children dance and dream

Hearing the ways of a miner's life

In words they've never seen

I sail my memories of home

Like boats across the Seine

And watch my father's eyes

Watching the setting sun

Set in my father's eyes again