Poems (White)/Daddy Can Understand

by Jeannie Copes White

DADDY CAN UNDERSTAND

When all are around the sitting room,
Talking and laughing at what is said,
Then nine o'clock right before us will loom.
Mother says, "Children must go to bed."
We have to leave then, and go out alone,
Up those dreadful, long, hallway stairs
Into a dark room, to cry and moan,
Because we're not grown; can't put on airs.
We reach near the top of those long steps,
Then we sit down; through the transom peep
At them laughing, and moving their lips.
Our daddy looks up, and catches us peep;
So he just quietly leaves the room,
Walks up to meet us, and takes our hand:
"Here, young folks ought to go to bed soon,
Or they'll not live long upon this land."
He lights the gas; beside us will sit;
Tells us stories of his boyhood's day;
When we are sleeping, then he will quit—
"It's pretty tough for them," he will say.
    Our daddy can understand.

When sometimes we go out for a walk,
So proud with our big daddy to be,
A boy will pass, while in the park—
He's skating! Our eyes follow to see.
Next day when we have come home from school,
We get a box, and what do you think?
Just what we've wanted has come so soon,
Before we had time to even wink.
    Our daddy can understand.

Sometimes when we are late home from school
Mother gets worried, telephones dad;
He says, "Don't worry, they've broke some rule,
So you had better not be so sad."
When we return, he looks at us stern,
And says, "You've had fun, but had to pay—
I hope, from now a lesson you'll learn,
For it's no fun at school thus to stay."
   Our daddy can understand.

When you are lazy and sit around,
He calls you to him; your pulse he feels;
On your chest he will thump for a sound;
Says, "Do you feel like dancing the reel?"
He soon gets you warm and snug in bed,
Sends for a doctor to give you pills,
When you are all so prickled and red;
He says it is just like all boys' ills.
    Our daddy can understand.

On evenings when grown-ups all go out
To hear great music or see a play,
Father just stays around about,
Says he is tired and would rather stay.
Then we play circus, and Wild West Show,
Till we are tired, and ready to say,
We'll go to bed; for 'tis best, you know.
    Our daddy can understand.

When we must go to church, and must sit
So still, and can't count all the lights,
So we are almost into a fit,
We wiggle just like our clothes are tights.
Our daddy will reach, and smooth our heads,
Till we're so sleepy we can't sit up.
He gives his knees for our sleepy heads.
When it's all over he wakes us up.
    Our daddy can understand.

He says he was a boy, so he knows
That boys have feelings, and can have pride,
That by our ways it so easily shows.
Surely from him we can nothing hide,
So we don't try to, because, you see,
He feels for fellows, and that is why
We and daddy will always agree;
To him we can never be shy.
    Cause daddy can understand.