SAM-THE-MAN'S done 21!

Righteo, strap yourselves in,

-21 verses* da come-

I don’t know how long you’ve bin,

SAM THE MAN’s done “twenty one”

(years that is, lived on this earth)!

Life has start-ed and begun

even though he’s still “pre-birth”.

“Pre-birth?”, you say, “..I don’t see..”,

stubble’s there upon his chin,

he looks big enough to me,

that no womb could hold him in.

When he used to live inside,

hidden in his mummy’s tum;

his father didn’t specially hide,

Sam was too fragile to come.

Sometimes he might hear a boom,

letting him know who he’d meet

when he came out of that womb-

to grow up to walk the street.

Dad saw him, before Sam could,

on that ultra-sound-y thing,

and he thought it would be good

to see Sam with less between.

Sam’s Dad didn’t push too much

to get Sam out, to breathe air,

even though then they could touch,

that would not have been quite “fair”..

“fair” is not prob’ly the word,

(when Sam was a little boy,

he was very fair, I’ve heard,

-hair a “cockatoo of joy”!)

more the thought is: “times weren’t right”

to bring him out much before

his birthday date, else tonight

would be too late, and what’s more,

he might not have been ready

to come out, and to have cried,

if we had not kept steady

and then had prodded and pried.

On the day Sam’s body changed

there in Cowra hospital;

blood system was re-arranged,

lungs and gut started to fill,

and he joined this bigger world

with more pain, though pleasure too.

Flag hoisted, to be unfurled

as he passed life’s stages through.

Like THE MAN - The Human One

who was born here just like Sam

and handled the pain & fun

of this world, and learnt to stand..

..stand for what is good and true

on his two feet, and with friends.

Then just hang around to do

what is needful for good ends.

Sam, your hero is mine too!

And your life’s a parable.

I am seeing him in you,

though he’s incomparable!

Since your Papa in heaven,

who’s been helping me advance,

put Life in you like leaven,

not just mine, you're Sam, THE MAN's

*that’s 21 verses of 21 sylables - originally 15 verses of 28 sylables with one verse of 21 sylables at the start.