Surviving Twin

Last week I attended a family affair
And a few remarked upon my recent growth of facial hair
You look just like your father did with that beard someone said
I answered back I am him, even though my old man’s dead

I didn’t want to be him, well at first I did
When I loved and looked up to him as a little kid

He sent me to his old school I was a numeral with his name
And he gave me this gold signet ring and he wore one just the same
And I guess that I believed him and probably it was true
When he told me I was just like him, that’s what some fathers do

But a father is always older and my dad was rather tall
Who says size doesn’t matter, he was big and I was small

I needed to be big enough, to be someone someday
And I learned I had to beat him, and that was the only way
I learned I had to fight him, my own flesh, blood, bone and kin
But I felt I was just like him, can a man’s son be his twin

First we fought for mother, that afforded little joy
When he left she was heart broken, and I was still their little boy

But I started to get bigger and to win the ugly game
When I made a little money and I got a bit of fame
And I saw how this could wound him, yes this could be the trick
And if I made it big enough, I could kill him off quick

But how can you murder someone in a way that they don’t die?
I didn’t want to kill him, that would be suicide

I got frightened so I backed off, I let up and I was through
And in the end he did himself in, usually that’s what we do
I’m alive and he is dead, and neither of us won
It’s spoiled for the victor, once the vanquishing is done

A man becomes immortal through his daughter or his son
But when he fears his legacy, a man can come undone

And the beard is a reminder, I’m a living part of him
Although my father’s dead and gone, I’m his surviving twin

Although the old man is dead and gone, I’m his surviving twin