Goodbye Dad

His face faded away with his trudge
Towards the road's last bend.
He would be gone in a moment
Perhaps parted from me for years,
Probably for the rest of my life.

His shadow lost clarity ,
He drifted away with anxious-hiding smiles;
I looked at him , my eyes moistened
Tears trickled down my cheeks.
He would be gone in a moment
Sadness seeped into me.

I gazed at him again and again
He quickened his pace on and on;
Shaking my hands in piteous gesture,
I waved him my last goodbye.

He returned where he was before,
The battlefield,
From which he had come with bruised knees'
A missing ear
Returned again without knowing
What the fighting was against.

"Goodbye dad,"
Waving weakened me, the pain stayed.