My Father

My father always promised me That we would live in France We'd go boating on the Seine And I would learn to dance We lived in Ohio then He worked in the mines On his dreams like boats We knew we would sail in time All my sisters soon were gone To Denver and Cheyenne Marrying their grownup dreams The lilacs and the man I stayed behind the youngest still Only danced alone The colors of my father's dreams Faded without a sound And I live in Paris now My children dance and dream Hearing the ways of a miner's life In words they've never seen I sail my memories of home Like boats across the Seine And watch the Paris sun As it sets in my father's eyes again My father always promised us That we would live in France We'd go boating on the Seine And I would learn to dance I sail my memories of home Like boats across the Seine And watch the Paris sun As it sets in my father's eyes again --- My Father - Nina Simone