The Story Behind Country Poems #1: I Can't Go

It was just past New Year's Day in 1996. After a long night behind the wheel of a taxi in Central NJ, I was asleep. My ex-wife Barb called up to me and told me that she was taking our son David and going out looking for a new place to live. She was tired of not having enough. Half asleep, I thought to myself, "Oh go ahead...go down to your mom's, have a cup of coffee, and you'll feel alot better when you get back." Basically, I was dismissing it.

When she got back, David jumped up on my lap waking me up and said, "Hey Dad, when we move into our new house, are you coming with us?"
That's when I knew it was real.

Two days later, while surveying 52 gas stations for prices for the Lundberg Survey, I was driving through Haddonfield, NJ. I heard Doug Supernaw's 'I Don't Call Him Daddy' on WXTU FM in Philadelphia. I had to stop the car in order to keep from wrecking it because I couldn't see through the tears. I got out of the car and walked through the blocks of Main St. I found myself in a pharmacy. I was in the stationary aisle when I picked up a note pad and it was then that I decided I'd write a letter to David. I knew he couldn't read it then, but when he could maybe he'd be able to understand why I wasn't with him.

While writing the letter, I noticed that the first couple of sentences rhymed a bit. So I shrugged, and continued the rest of the letter as best I could in rhyme. That's how it all began.