Our lovely daughter
16 today — yesterday
Seems so long ago

Yesterday she was
Just a little girl, precious
And so precocious

Yesterday she played
Without a care but to choose
Which crayon to use

Yesterday she drew
Pictures, some larger than life
As big as her dreams

Today she’s 16
Tasting, what? Love? Confusion?
She’s not telling me

Today she’s 16
On the threshold of it all
Perfect — Just ask her!

We love you, sweetie
Though now you’re so hard to hold
Harder to let go

“You have a nice voice”
Louis Simon told his boy
That was all it took

“How terribly strange
“To be 70,” Paul wrote.
Now he is, today

In between, he blessed
The world with so much music
The world loved him back

With childhood pal Art
He turned folk music into
Magical soundscapes

“El Condor Pasa”
So perfectly exotic
To this Kansan’s ears

And “For Emily”
I think there never will be
A more perfect song

“The Sound of Silence”
Was his first hit; I wonder
What will be his last

Perhaps his most played,
“Bridge Over Troubled Water,”
Still soothes many souls

Solo career soared
But it was more than just hits
Decades, deeply felt

Been around the world
To Graceland and back, Elvis
Without all the fuss

Such a good man, Paul
He’s shared so much of himself
His pop would be proud