Digital Tradition Mirror

When My Father Called

When My Father Called
(Mark Cohen)

  G
G/F#  Em
When my father called this morning
  C               D
Woke me from a dream
  G                 G/F#  Em
Childhood friends were all around me
  C                 D
It was peaceful, safe, and clean
     Em                   Bm
   Then the phone broke through the vision
     C               G
   And I heard his voice
     Em             Bm
   Seeming somehow so much younger
     C             D
   Almost like a little boy's
Can't recall what he was saying
Something 'bout the snow
In his voice I heard an echo
Of a time so long ago
   Suddenly I saw him sitting
   In a far-off place
   Just a nineteen-year-old soldier
   Tears running down his face

       C               D
      In a scrapbook once I saw
       C                     D              Em
      That telegram they'd sent across the sea:
       C                D
      "Pop died yesterday; come home"
       C                  D             E
      The Army sent him back from Germany

I have only seen in pictures
That man I've never known
But my father is his son
And his name is now my own
   I don't know what passed between them
   As that young boy grew
   I've never asked, he's rarely spoken
   Though many times I wish I knew

  G                G/F# Em
Things get blurred by time and distance
  C              D
Hardly seen at all
  G            Bm        Am         D
But love was sharp and clear that morning
  C       D      G
When my father called

Copyright Mark Cohen 1986
MC

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!