Dear daughter I tiptoed to your room tonight
|
And I looked down at you smiling in your sleep
|
You were so lovely my heart nearly broke
|
And I thought how very much like sleeping beauty a little girl is
|
When I tuck you in at night I never know how old you'll be when you wake
|
One evening you crawl on your dad's lap and throw your arms around his neck
|
The next morning you might be much too grownup for that sort of thing
|
You're so quickly approachin' my awkward age
|
Too young to drive a car and yet too old to be carried
|
Into the house half asleep on daddy's shoulder
|
I have a secret that I've never told you Sleeping Beauty
|
You're going on a very exciting trip
|
You'll travel from yesterday all the way to tomorrow
|
It's a rapid journey and you'll travel light
|
Leavin' behind your measles mumps freckles bumps bubblegum and me
|
I promise not to feel too hurt when you discover
|
That the world is more important than your daddy's lap
|
Yesterday you were blue-jeaned and pig-tailed the neighborhood's best tree-climber
|
Tomorrow you'll be blue-organdie and ponny-tailed
|
And you'll view the world from a loftier perch a pair of high-heel shoes
|
Yesterday you could mend a doll's broken leg with a hug
|
Tomorrow you'll be able to break a young man's heart with a kiss
|
Ha ha yesterday you could get lost one aisle away from me in a supermarket
|
Now I have to worry about losin' you down another aisle to some strange young man
|
You see just at the point where your growing pains stop mine begin
|
Yesterday you were kind of a pain in the neck when you were around
|
Tomorrow you'll be an ache in my heart when you're not
|
Tomorrow you'll lay aside your jumprope and tie up the telephone lines
|
And that little boy that used to push you in the mud
|
Well he'll fight to set out a dance with you
|
The clock upstairs is countin' the minutes for you
|
And the sky upstairs is savin' its brightest stars
|
And the sun is waitin' with its shinest day
|
Oh I can't expect you to live in a dollhouse forever
|
Sooner or later the butterfly sheds its cocoon and the smallest bird must try its wings
|
But when you grow up and out of my arms when you finally get too big for my shirts
|
I'll still recall how you used to scatter dust and dolls
|
And partially through every room in the house but you spread sunshine too
|
The dust is settled your mom picked up the dolls
|
But the sunshine will always fill the corners of our hearts
|
So here I am talkin' in your sleep
|
Because well if you saw this look on my face you'd laugh
|
And if I spoke with this lump in my throat I'd cry
|
Yeah honey when I looked at you tonight you were a Sleeping Beauty
|
So I tiptoed over and I kissed you you didn't wake up I knew you wouldn't
|
According to the legend only the handsome young prince can open your eyes
|
And I'm just the father of a future bride
|
So you sleep on pretty thing tomorrow you'll awake and you'll be a young lady
|
And you won't even realize that you've changed courses in the middle of a dream
|
But you might notice this little change in me
|
I look a little different somehow a little sadder a little wiser but a whole lot richer
|
Tonight I kissed a princess and I feel like a king
|
|
-----------------
|
To A Sleeping Beauty
|
| Jimmy Dean |
