My Father is Gone – © 2003 Richard Ruane

In the coal mining hills of Pennsylvania

My father grew up just above the mine

But his father told him no

You won’t be working down below

Cause I won’t see you fall before your time

So my father had a job down at the railway

Moving round the coal-filled railroad cars

But one April afternoon

My aunt came up to my room

And told me there’d been trouble at the yards

My father is gone, will not return.

You can’t hold a life beyond its own turn

Can’t hold back the night or hurry the dawn

It cannot be changed, my father is gone

There were people in their suits out in the parlor

There were tall men come to shake me by the hand

And a kitchen full of pies

And my mother’s weary eyes

My uncle told me “Son, now be a man.”

My father is gone, will not return.

You can’t hold a life beyond its own turn

Can’t hold back the night or hurry the dawn

It cannot be changed, my father is gone

But I dreamed that he opened his eyes

That he opened his eyes

And all was all right

My father is gone, will not return.

You can’t hold a life beyond its own turn

Can’t hold back the night or hurry the dawn

It cannot be changed, my father is gone