Cowboy Pete - family post

During a fit of cleaning I came across the following poem written by my step-daughter when she was a sophmore in high school. It's based on a picture of her dad when he was a small child. While it won't have meaning for many folks out there it will certainly be appreciated by the family.

Cowboy Pete

Standing tall, standing proud
Beautiful day,
nothing in the sky, not even a cloud.

Perched on a cellar door
Playing cowboys and Indians
No one is cuter than Peter Norman.

Shorts pulled high,
Socks also to the sky.
Sounds of happy laughter fill the ears.

Shorts held up by a rope,
Peter, don’t forget to wash
behind your ears with soap.

Has a straw hat, frayed,
looks torn by a cat.
A smile that could brighten anybody’s gray day,

A body skinny and frail,
A grin that could tip the scale.
My dad, the cunning little cowboy.

In one hand mischief, and in the other only trouble,
This little partner looks sly and coy,
I’m so glad there’s only one and not double.

It’s too bad I wasn’t around when you were little,
Our fashion sense could have been seen
as a bright bag of skittles.

You were such a cute kid.
Not a care in sight,
You dreamed of being a pilot and taking off in flight.

I’m so glad you were captured
in a picture like this,
Forever your childhood your mother will miss.

You are all grown up,
You will never again need your sippy cup.

Why couldn’t you have stayed an adventurous child?
Forever you’d be young and wild.

There are so many things that only you can teach me,
But how could you do that if you were still baby Petey?

So we’ll cherish the moments we have now,
And in the future I will tell my kids
and they will think “holy cow.”

So hug me tonight,
I’ll see you tomorrow.

- Aimee