Ode

Your grey rock stone body awash with

Wild berries, purple, blue  flowers, shrubs

Defy mother nature

Cemented in the dirt yard

Unmoved, over a rock ledge

As the goats tether

-

From a crack through the window

Paved that hard finality

Behold the village that raised you

Held in the crevices of the valley

Yet a glimpse of the mountain you see

-

Now I remember my teenage years

Filled with bible verses you fed me

As you felt for the hallowed pages

Your chanted incantations

Echoed in every room

That old wooden house

The wrap-around porch

-

Tears stung as it did that day

Proud to have known you

We knew nothing of how we would say adieu

They read your last will and testament

Before they left you that day

In the graveyard so all can hear

I was too young to understand

The earth must have shaken

The dust filled their eyes

-

Today I wore you like vermilion

I sit and recall the meaning of that day

I mourn, my throat tightens

My ear rings

Listen,

The birds fly freely as they sing

Your love mirrors my very essence.

-

Poem written by Brenda L. McCartney