Ravin

Once upon a birthday yearly, I have dreams that I am nearly
Some great poet and not merely this old hacker that you know.
So you'll find it not surprising that again I'm fantasizing--
For your birthday, plagiarizing good old Edgar Allan Poe.
I am copying the poet that I know
Good old Edgar Allan Poe.

?

Back from recent travels dreary, stressed and jet-lagged, eyes all bleary,
I was reading, weak and weary, e-mail messages galore.
As I nodded, nearly sleeping, suddenly there came a beeping--
One more e-mail message leaping, leaping to the fore.
"Tis the fam'ly site," I muttered, "leaping to the fore--
This one I cannot ignore."

With that dotcom site now working, messages are always lurking,
Leaving no excuse for shirking birthday greetings any more.
As the heading I was reading, loud my telltale heart was beating,
For I guessed where it was leading, what this message held in store.
It said Danny is at birthday twenty-four.
Twenty-three now, nevermore.

Then (and this is what's uncanny), every moment lived by Danny,
Every paddle on the fanny, was repeated there, and more.
And I sat there, raptly reading?neither time nor hunger heeding,
Skipping conference and meeting just to read that massive store.
From his date of birth till he was twenty-four,
Yes, till he was twenty-four.

There he was at one, creating paths around all cribs and gating--
Couldn't walk, but innovating ways to get around the floor.
In a tree at two?what timing! Never nickeling and diming--
All or nothing?he was climbing twelve feet up and wanting more.
Earthbound Danny would not be forevermore,
(Well, perhaps just one time more).

Nothing Danny's style quite cramping, there at three, with Heather tramping
Over hill and dale and camping with the Catholics at four.
Five and six, a lot more hiking, racing down the hill while biking,
Motorcycles to his liking?Chuck and wheelies, jumps galore
He was now like old Knievel to the core--
Jumps and wheelies ever more.
Little League?I see you diving for a catch at third base, thriving
On the challenge, see you driving in a dozen runs and more.
Shenandoah?year beginning, see you racing, see you winning,
See the ladies watch you grinning, hoping good things were in store.
(But old J.J., we'll not mention anymore,
Not a mention evermore.)

Well, that software kept on spewing stories of his derring-doing,
Teenage years and years ensuing, scrapes and close escapes galore
Twas the software so sporadic of my mind's own memory attic
With so many files dramatic,I kept checking back for more,
And a few that we perhaps could just ignore
Now that Danny's twenty-four.

Now a Dad must be forgiven if at times you find him livin'
Through his son?I guess I'm driven cause I love you to the core
And as birthdays keep on coming, you're the tune that I'll be humming,
You're the beat that I'll be drumming down through fifty birthdays more.
I'll be ravin' bout my son and nothing more
Quote me: ravin' evermore.