Monday, April 8, 2019

Poetry project, V. 10.0, Day 4

Today, my father turned 76.  As per my usual, I called and talked to him for a good bit - we said good-bye four times.  It's usually like that, and I wouldn't change it for anything.  I love my dad.  I could ask for no better example to follow, nor to improve upon - for that is the goal of each generation: to improve upon the works of the previous one.  I have been given an excellent foundation upon which to build, and so, I do my best to build upward in whatever way I can.  I spent this weekend in pursuit of the activities my father enjoys, and so, my inspiration....

honor thy father

i shoveled yesterday,
heaping dirt upon itself,
tilling the ground ahead of planting,
preparing for a garden.
i remember my father working the same way,
and i, as a child, mimicking him,
trying to push the spade the full way down on one push.
i wondered how he managed it,
and as i pushed shovelfulls of dirt around
i saw myself in my father's place,
the child in the window next door watching me.
did he wonder how i did it, too?
did he wonder why?
i no longer wonder such things -
thanks, Dad.

I'm a few days behind, and while I will likely publish more than one a day for the next several, I'm going to take a bit of a different tact, and publish them as singular entities.

As always,
thanks for reading,

Me

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