ESM 1919-1990

my dad was rare


a Scorpio

an eagle rising above his transformations


dark quiet and mysterious

but magnetic to the ladies


and solid to his men friends

dependable as a sunrise


when my mother died

the memory remains


of that powerful light dimmed

to a slow darkness which shrouded him


for the rest of his days

though he was what he always was to his family


keeping his word in his mouth

and speaking only when his patience wore thin


in the empty daily suffering that supposedly ennoble

as if this pain were a teaching from some cosmic maniac


who demanded the puffery of adoration...

as if this love were not enough...never good enough...


dad wherever you are now I hope you and Mom

will put in the good word for me if it matters at all to God...


I've stumbled my whole life without counsel

but memory of you both framed a doomed childhood


that finally delivered to the wreck and ruin that was mine

to endure in this life...I followed you slowly and now the pace quickens...


I'll be with you before you know it...






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