The Ring

 Terri Hendrix

 When we were kids
 We’d lay awake at night
 And listen to my mom and dad talk about money
 When times were tight
 My mom would raise her voice
 My dad wouldn’t say a thing
 He’d walk outside
 Turn on his workshop light
 And he’d work on a ring
 My dad earned the Soldier’s Medal
 And the Purple Heart in Vietnam
 He learned how to make jewelry
 To ease his mind on the ship back home
 The war left him changed
 He never said a thing
 Every time he thought about it
 He’d work on the ring
 For my mother
 He made a ring
 For my mother
 He’d do most anything
 A quiet man
 With words unspoken
 Proved his love could not be broken
 Out of a half dollar
 My father
 Made my mom a ring
 We watched him through the window
 As he worked one afternoon
 He held the silver half dollar in his hand
 As he tapped the edges with a spoon
 When I asked my dad if he was mad
 He never said a thing
 It seemed to ease his troubled mind
 As he worked on the ring
 For my mother
 He made a ring
 For my mother
 He’d do most anything
 A quiet man
 With words unspoken
 Proved his love could not be broken
 Out of a half dollar
 My father
 Made my mom a ring
 Every holiday
 We gather round the table
 As my dad prays
 And when we close our eyes
 Sometimes I think my dad cries
 And those words left unspoken
 I’ve come to understand
 What’s kept our family together
 Is worn on my mother’s hand
 For my mother
 He made a ring
 For my mother
 He’d do most anything
 A quiet man
 With words unspoken
 Proved his love could not be broken
 Out of a half dollar
 My father
 Made my mom a ring
 Out of a half dollar
 My father
 Made my mom a ring