5 Chinese Brothers My Dad's Face
Tom Meltzer
When I look in the mirror I see my dad's face
Where my face used to be
Then I realize that he was about my age
When he started his own family
Then my radicalism, all my college Marxism
Starts drifting on out to deep sea
When I look in the mirror and I see my dad's face
Where my face used to be
When I was a kid I used to look at my dad
And I'd say, "This is who I am not."
He used Bryl-Creem, I used hair spray
He was fat, I was skinny
He drank beer, I smoked pot
But now my feet are disappearing beneath an ocean of beer
And not so mysteriously
When I look at my face I see in its place
My dad's physiognomy
I used to look at my friends, they looked fifty years older
Some nights when I'd get too stoned
That's when I believed time was a visible line
With its end and beginning both shown
Now I know that's not true
But I've still got an idea pretty much of what I can expect
When I look in the mirror and I see my dad's mug
Sitting there right on top of my neck
Well, my dad had it rough, he couldn't keep his true love
He never reached his sought-after perfection
So as I headed down my own life's road
I headed straight in the other direction
Now, when I turn around, he's not so far away
And we're on the same road, I can see
When I look in the mirror and I see my dad's face
Where my face used to be
