We lived in a lighthouse
Overlooking the sea,
There was papa and mama,
my brother and me.
We had an old dog named Shep
and a tame parakeet,
It was a very fine life
for my brother and me.
Papa worked hard;
He was the sole lighthouse keeper,
Mama made all our clothes,
she said it was cheaper.
Mama taught us to read,
to add and subtract,
We were too far from school,
and that was a fact.
Papa climbed up the steps
every night of our lives,
to light up the wicks
so that sailors survived;
for the rocks in the ocean
were brutal and deep
and under our lighthouse,
a cliff deadly and steep,
Papa put up a fence
so we wouldn’t fall down,
It was a very fine lighthouse,
the best to be found
Once a month, papa took mama
into town in our truck;
she bought a few groceries,
we were down on our luck,
so there never was candy,
we seldom had meat.
(I once had an orange;
it was a mighty fine treat )
Papa fished in the ocean
we had biscuits and jelly ,
and Mama made cornbread,
we had a full belly .
And then came a time,
when a man came from town;
He was a stranger,
and not from around;
He gave papa a paper
and here’s what it said,
the lighthouse was going
electric instead;
so papa no longer
would be the lighthouse keeper;
we thought we would move
but staying was cheaper;
so we hid in the lighthouse
whenever we saw
strangers approaching;
it was not hard at all;
papa kept his old truck,
down in the woods
they never bought staples,
if only they could;
we ran out of cornmeal
and flour and such,
and lived off the ocean,
there never was much,
then Mama took sick
and one day she died;
it was the onliest time
that I saw Papa cry.
He took us to to3wn
to an orphan asy um,
he drove off with Shep
and I’m not lying,
He opened the cage
and the parakeet flew
off in the sky ,
where no body knew.
My brother and me
went to live with a farmer
and learned to do chores;
we were children no longer.
Sandra Lee Smith
first written March 18 , 2010; updated June 22, 2018
