Author Information
JIMMY
JIMMY
(T. Beechey)
So many ways
I tried to make him see
Just so he'd praise
And not sarcastically
But somehow
He refused to even try
I was not allowed
And a failure in his eye
The other kids, they played all kind of sports
I never did, I was busy making forts
In the backyard out of boxes big and small
And I'd be the guard, I'd never let them fall
My father, he would only shake his head
And remind me of the lonely life I led
“This way that you behave is wrong,” he'd claim
“And I'm sorry that I gave to you my name.”
So many times
I tried to make him see
That it was no crime
For me just being me
But somehow
He just never understood
I was not allowed
For only his own good
“Why don't you act like Jimmy down the street?”
He'd tell me what I lacked, then he'd repeat
“Jimmy always makes his parents proud.”
Each morning I'd awake beneath this shroud
“You'll never guess what Jimmy did today!”
I couldn't care less, he'd tell me anyway
Everything was Jimmy this and Jimmy that
Jimmy couldn't miss, I always ended flat
So many ways
I tried to let him know
It was not a phase
It was how I come to grow
But somehow
He could not comprehend
I was not allowed
This discussion's at an end
I could never make the grade and it was plain
Always in Jimmy's shade I would remain
Even as I grew from boyhood to a man
I can never do what Jimmy does and can
I tried for quite a while to make his cut
But I couldn't make him smile no matter what
He couldn't ever give me signs of love
I wasn't Jimmy or a facsimile thereof
So many times
I tried to let him know
There was a rhyme
And reason to my flow
But somehow
He would never realize
I was not allowed
There was no compromise
When he died, they told me I should grieve
But something deep inside refused to leave
The feelings that I had since my youth
And I don't miss my dad and that's the truth
Jimmy, if someday you read these words
All I have to say is that I heard
And I feel real bad, I hope you're doing fine
He was more your dad than he was ever mine
