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My Father and My Father's Father
My family has a gift, woven finely;deeply in our fabric
Father wiser than I, his more than he, and his more than him
When I was young, my father brought me to see his,
For the sage who was my father's teacher,
Had become quite gravely ill
My father dread the thought, of us arriving to him still
When we arrived, I saw him upon his bed;
He had grown pale, hair indistinguishable from skin
Nervously and anxiously I grabbed my father's pant-leg, as the nurse had let us in
The father of my father, oh what grief, he was not whom I saw before
He much like his photos, did not age so well, and faded, as any memory would
My father stood beside his bed, while I still behind him, peered out to view, more so than see
"Young one, come here. Let me get a look at you." His voice drafted through his gap
But I defied that wish, retreating behind my father like a child avoiding his nap
"Oh young one; you look so familiar just now." The old man amusingly said,
"How you remind me of a story I remember from when I was but like your father."
"A story?" My inquisitiveness piqued, my attention roused, my defenses void, I uttered so
"Oh yes, and a most grand one as well." The elder said, before a fit of cough
"Father, no. You're much too-" My father had tried to object;
But not long in, his father raised a slender venerable hand that did thus:
Deflected arrows and stones; cast them into the sea,
Mountains fell, and moved, and ceased to block his path
Giants stumbled, sirens paused, and the blind could see
As the pink parted seas had ceased to be,
And my father had closed his lips
"When I was your father's age, I had been walking through the market square.
I came then to the dirt path that led me home per usual, but I met a face.
"This most small and fearful guest of mine, a serpent, coiled on the path.
He rattled at me, and hissed, and said therein 'Go away! Leave me be!'
"But I did the opposite. I kneeled and asked him 'Why? Why would you stay here alone?'
He responded 'I was on my way for food, when a flock of birds had me startled.
"'And so I coiled, to keep them at bay.' Unaware was he, that the birds merely waited for my leave.
I told him, 'no matter how long you coil, those birds will not fear you. Not ever.
" 'And as you coil, and lack your food, you will grow malnourished, and with it weak.
Without food, your poison and venom will overflow like a rain-filled well.
" 'In this dear serpent, you will die, and you'll be a delayed meal for that bird.
A nourished snake, who travels in confidence, his coil is threatening.
" 'He is the snake that the bird dare not sweep for. That is the truth.'
Then the snake, taken by my words did something remarkable.
" He then looked at me, and what I gave him and then he... He..."
At that moment his eyes closed and he grew as silent as he was still.
My father kneeled beside him and took his hand in his own, after which,
He spoke to me with most beautiful, heart-felt touching words;
" The time comes, upon every day, at which the sun will come to set,
In its hands locked with the moon's, they dance, and circle round.
With every setting of every sun, there is another that soon rises in its place.
And with every leading foot, there is but one that follows, and so too must this one.
But with every choreography, and routine, each step is then unique.
"With every dance, there is a following accompaniment of rest,
With every seating, there is the time to rise; and with every sleeping there is a new awakening."
Father's eyes welled, and filled with tears as his voice shook with love,
He spoke again "Every farewell is grand, every farewell is good.
"They bring values so rich, no matter how well they're understood."
And the two of us had wept, tears, that only children ever could
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