With my father when I was ten

I remember being shook to the core

As that was the day I found

That my pity tears worked no more

Before, I would fake cry for mommy 

So he would take me for pizza and ice cream

But that day instead, he said “grow up”

And put an end to my scheme

 

I couldn’t understand what had changed 

Did I do something wrong? Were we estranged?

Until I realized I was older than before

And as I shot up like a tree

Things slowly stopped being handed to me

I stopped seeing work as such a chore

I cleaned my room, had high marks in school-nothing was unearned

All because the value of work, at so young, I had learned 

 

As I continue to grow, I continue to learn

The effort is harder to put forth as the workload gets steep

More often than not, I want to put it off and go to sleep

But I do my best because I know

I can’t sleep on it as the adult I’m soon to be

I can’t hide from my responsibility

I have to work for things I want, as I understood so long ago