Email To A Son Poem by Donal Mahoney

Hard to believe you graduated
from college 25 years ago.
Anyone who can climb

from ruffian in a juvenile home
to university graduate to
business owner is remarkable.

One day your sons
will come to understand that.
Your siblings as well.

Couldn’t be prouder of your trek,
a magnificent one, done the hard way,
something I viewed from the valley.

My father had a passbook
with cash for me to go to college.
He always had work, hard work,

highly skilled, with no layoffs.
There’s always a demand for hot wire
electricians willing to climb

tall poles and high towers,
attack voltage in any weather.
Life never steps back, forever upstream,

and then suddenly we're salmon.
A final thrust or two and we die.
Thank God we have souls.