My Father

My father always promised us we would live in France We'd go sailing on the Seine and I would learn to dance We lived in Ohio then and he worked in the mines On his streams like boats we knew we would sail in time All my sisters soon were gone to Denver and Cheyenne Marrying their grown-up dreams, the lilacs and the man I stayed behind the youngest and only danced alone The colours of my father's dreams faded without a sound And now I live in Paris and my children dance and dream Hearing the story of a miner's life in words they've never seen I sail my memories of old like boats across the Seine And I watch the Paris sun set in my father's eyes again My father always promised us we would live in France We'd go sailing on the Seine and I would learn to dance