Fatherhood
What degree is bestowed
By goodnight hugs of a seven-year-old?
What great work, of what acclaim
Could pass the glory or the fame
Of fatherhood?
What subject in which college book
Would require the care I took,
What point of study more impart
The education of my heart
Completely?
What hard-won academic crown
Could augment this cap and gown
Of kite-string hours and bug exams
I earned while holding smaller hands
In parks?
Though I walk in common ways
And spend my life in workers' days,
I could seek no higher praise
Or title worth adoring gaze
Than "Dad".
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