Another Farewell

My dad passed away this afternoon (New Jersey time). On August 31 he was admitted to the hospital after suffering a subdural hematoma; they performed brain surgery and thought he might stabilize, but he never really came to again.

I'll eventually write something proper, but in the meantime here's one of those songs I tucked away thinking "someday I'm going to need, how sad it is I'll need this." Billy Bragg's "Tank Park Salute.:"

Kiss me goodnight and say my prayers
Leave the light on at the top of the stairs
Tell me the names of the stars up in the sky
A tree taps on the window pane
That feeling smothers me again
Daddy is it true that we all have to die

At the top of the stairs
Is darkness

I closed my eyes and when I looked
Your name was in the memorial book
and what had become of all the things we planned
I accepted the commiserations
Of all your friends and your relations
But there's some things I still don't understand

You were so tall
How could you fall?

Some photographs of a summer's day
A little boy's lifetime away
Is all I've left of everything we've done
Like a pale moon in a sunny sky
Death gazes down as I pass by
To remind me that I'm but my father's son

I offer up to you
This tribute
I offer up to you
This tank park salute