To Be My Fathers Son

To Be My Father’s Son.

My father said you do not need to worry wee bairn.

One day you will grow up to be a real Glasgow man.

So, I believed him, it was all was going to be alright.

I gradually set about getting on with my young life.

The days and years quickly passed, and I got older.

Increasingly i found myself in an awful lot of bother.

Was a brutal hard life on the mean Glasgow streets.

Making it totally on your own no one there to teach.

As I got older no one informed me what might follow.

The savage violence, the drugs, sex and the alcohol.

It was just part and parcel of everyday city street life.

It had to be done if you wanted any chance to survive.

When I left school, I had no intention of being a docker.

I thought I could be different not just a payroll number.

The teen years had led me down the streets of trouble.

I decided I wanted to become the famous bank robber.

I knew all the right connections to help achieve my aim.

Put our stupid heads together and came up with a plan.

We covered every angle, twice, so we foolishly thought.

It turned out proper professionals we certainly were not.

We drove over and waited outside the planned location.

Bang on 10:00 PM we started to put our plan into action.

Entering the Bank building our plan came crashing down.

Inside there were smiling policemen just hanging around.

Laughing and smiling they showed us to the police cells.

Had great pleasure informing us, we were all going to jail.

There was no way out for us, I knew I had done the crime.

Head down for a 3-year sentence and quietly did my time.

I realised I was not the man my father expected me to be.

Always in serious trouble and not contributing to society.

On my release I vowed I would forever stay out of trouble.

And that maybe it's not too bad to return and be a docker.

Working in the docks I realised I was finally coming of age.

Survived the merciless ribbon and had been taught a trade.

It was my long hard working five years in the city Docklands.

That is how I grew up, in the end i became my father's son.

Nataiella