To Dad on his 79th Birthday
To Dad, with love on your 79th birthday
Neale Morison 1999
Your life is a rich cake, and varied,
With perhaps little need for a frostin',
You've crammed it with goodies a'plenty,
Even privacy, torts and John Austin,
You have made friends and influenced people,
Ranging humble to highly falutin'
You are widely renowned for your fairness
With intolerance only to gluten
You have travelled amidst foreign cultures,
Adapting with ease to the etiquette,
You've sported your bags in far Oxford
Tippled cocktails in distant Connecticut
Our philosophy's safe, and our morals,
We know in our wrongs you will right us,
You ongo with your efforts to educate
Contributing to Heraclitus,
Extending the family's a chore,
That you don't delegate to a cousin,
You have done what you can for the gene pool,
Your grandkids approach the half-dozen
We sincerely and gratefully thank you,
For your generous method of slicing,
The pieces just never stop coming,
And that, on this cake, is the icing.