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Statue in the ParkFor homecoming ‘57Dad was out in that big cornfieldHaulin’ in his father’s harvestFor a winter’s worth of mealsBut Joe Buck was playin’ footballOn that field to be a starHe won the game…the girls and fameAnd a statue in the parkNow my father’s ragged straw hatWas a haystack on his headHis coat was a sheepskin collarSkunk bone buttons and some threadAnd he’d take me to the playgroundAfter long days on the farmFor all his work, I thought he deservedA statue in the parkJoe Buck blew his knees out before he signed with the prosAlmost makin’ it big was what ate at him the mostThey found him after a lost weekend of pills and Maker’s MarkLyin’ on the football field stiff as a statue in the parkThen one cool October evenin’Pumpkin moon-a-shinin’ downI found my dad in the cornfieldCrops in hand…face on the groundNow he’s resting by the scarecrowOn the east end of the farmhe watches over dad, with his coat n hatLike a statue in the park©2007 Robert George