What Will You Do (When Your Father is Dead)?

Have you considered
What you intend to do
When your father stops breathing
And his face has turned blue

When the nurse brings you tissues
And a toe has been tagged
And they wheel off the gurney
With a man in a bag?

Will you try to stay strong for your mother
Will you stay all night by her side
Or collapse into her bosom
Too embarrassed to even have tried
To be there as a good son should be there
And if not, what will you do instead?

What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do, what will you do
When your father is dead?

When he lies in the casket
In his Saturday bests
And his lips have been crusted
By a cold morbid rest

When the guests have found their places
And the rabbi has arrived
And he comes to rip the garments
Of the ones who have survived
When he chants some bullshit in Hebrew
And you haven't any clue what he's said

What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do, what will you do
When your father is dead?

When the shivah has ended
And the guests have gone home
And you've tried to say Kaddish
In your bedroom alone

Are you Jacob, asleep on a jagged rock
As the angels climb up to The Lord
Or Job, the afflicted, the tortured by God
With his boils and his blisters and sores
Or Noah, the drunk, who accosted his sons
And then crawled back into bed?

What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do, what will you do
When your father is dead?

What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do
When your father is dead?
What will you do, what will you do
When your father is dead?