Main Street Parade ~

Who's that man
standing over there,
waiting for the parade to pass?
He is straightening now
holds his head high
as the flag furls by.

That's my Dad—
who said,
when I was older,
he had so much
to thank America for
and Butler,
his New World home.

His life he spent here,
giving back, as he deemed it,
and in his mind
leaving it
could only have meant
dying.