Truck Driving Man

My dad was a truck driving man

Made his living while the wheels turned

Sometimes he was gone a long time

But always knew he’d come back

Because I was his kid and I prayed for him.

He was smart even through he had to quit school

To work on the family farm

Chiricahua Apache who adopted

The sickest kid in the baby place.

My mom was a yellow rose of Texas

He was from Oklahoma

He and my Uncle Frank

Paid eighteen dollars

To sit on part of a truck seat

Family headed for California

Escape the Black Death skies of the Dust Bowl

A hero in the war but we never knew it

Till a stranger came to our house

After the funeral.

Told me how he saved him and every man in his company

From certain death in the Pacific

Never spoke a word of it to any of us.

My Dad was a truck driving man

But he was so much more

I miss him and my mom

Every single day.

My Dad was a truck driving man

Made his living while the wheels turned.