Boo! Kiss My Foot!

Without so much as a fare-thee-well

or a by-your-leave

my dad used to say these things regularly

along with

well ain’t THAT a fine how-do-you-do

or he might declare someone never said

Boo! Kiss my foot!

and he was always humming

whistling

or softly singing

usually Farther Along

or I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

and nearly every day

several times a day

Mairzy Doats

my dad avoided what he considered

crass and vulgar language

no profanities

no obscenities

clean lips – that was my dad

genuinely

he seldom got ‘ticked off’

but occasionally he proclaimed

that some situation

‘really gets my goat’

or ‘chaps my hide’

then inevitably

he would chuckle

shake his head

and say something like

‘ah, well. no need to worry about it.

what goes around come around.

you reap what you sow.’

Dad sowed a lot of goodness and peace

before he whispered his last fare-thee-well