Daddy came home

A pink lei draped around the bow

Mommy and the officer’s wives

Had worked so hard to make

Daddy in his white uniform

So tall and proud and strong

I was so happy he had come home

On a warm tropical day

Across the water we flew

The oil glistened on the water

Rainbow colors swirling

The bay smelled of diesel fuel

And the gray paint the sailors painted with

Endless decks, towers, guns and rails

The only thing that wasn’t gray

Were the numbers on the hull

And the building out in the bay

We came closer, men in white saluted

The flag flapped in the salty breeze

A promise made, sturdy and tall

We went inside, there were many pictures

They were scenes of a war, and ships burning

Movies were so much better; I found it all to be a bore

When you are six years old

There are so many other exciting things

Playing soldier in the jungle behind my house

Landing G.I. Joe on an enemy’s shore

So I wandered over to the stand

White and brass shining, I looked over and in

Like a glass bottom boat I had ridden in before

When my parents toured us around

The tropical Hawaiian shore

Down in the deep, it was murky, cold and gray

No pretty fish or coral reef, I was ready to walk away

Then of a sudden, the murk cleared off

Like a hand wiping a glass clean

I peered close, and was taken aback

By the quiet, haunting scene

A battleship lay in the mud

Burnt, broken, cold and dead

Twisted pieces everywhere

A sailor’s tomb; I bowed my head

For I knew sadness, and then

Despite the tropic heat, I was chilled to the bone

As I looked again I realized

How lucky I really was

And I knew, gazing at that lonesome hulk

Someone’s daddy had not come home