Men are very much like birds,
Some sing a song, some seldom heard.
Some will fly – some never try.
Some will never reach the sky.
Some are low and some quite regal.
Some may choose to hoot with owls,
While others soar like eagles.
Tom Northam
Dedicated to Dana Ohl on the occasion of his graduation from the University of Michigan, September 26, 1986.
SUZY Q
Her mother didn’t want her,
Her father never knew.
Her family said to give her up,
It was the proper thing to do.
This was when I met sweet Mary Sue,
This tiny bundle known as Suzy Q
My mother found her precious,
And dressed her like a toy,
We never knew the story, true
But I wished she’d been a boy.
Although she was adopted,
She was my sister through and through,
This little girl, my sister, Suzy Q.
She soon became my best friend,
My playmate, the one I liked the best
She became the girl I’ve always loved
Oh, how we explored from east to west,
She was my father’s daughter,
My brother’s sister too.
This was our little Mary Sue
My sweet, sweet little Suzy Q.
She married young, “…would never last!
It did for sixty years and past.
This moonstruck couple fooled them all
They had two children; grandkids too.
And one and all loved Suzy Q.
Today, I learned that Suzy died,
And though I knew she was soon to go
I thought I had more time to say
To tell this girl who was given away
How much she meant to me and many.
How much I wanted her to know–
She’d filled the lives of far more than she knew
Goodbye, sleep well, sweet Suzy Q.
by Tom Northam
December 3, 2019
