The Box

On the top shelf in the closet in the workshop where he spent his extra time
Was a dusty wooden box but I had never noticed till that time
Then we set it on the table and carefully we opened up the top
And stared into the memories daddy kept inside the box

There was a letter from mama when
She went out to Reno to help her sister out in sixty two
And a flower from Hawaii when they went on vacation
It was the first time that my daddy ever flew
And the pocket knife I gave to him on fathers day
Years ago I thought it had been lost

We all thought his heart was made of solid rock
But that was long before we found the box

I guess we always knew it, but 'I love you' was hard for him to say
Some men show it easily and some just never seem to find the way
But that night I began to see a softer side of someone I had lost
I saw the love he kept inside the first time when we opened up the box

There was a picture that was taken
When he and mom were dating standin' by his 1944
And the faded leather Bible, he got when he was baptized
I guess no one understood him like the Lord
And the poem that he had written about his wife and children
The tender words he wrote were quite a shock

We all thought his heart was made of solid rock
But that was long before we found the box

We all thought his heart was made of solid rock
But that was long before we found the box