Lois and Alice, Felix and Floyd

I never really knew them

they faded or died from the time I was young

gray haired and palsied liver-spotted old men

faces on walls where the pictures were hung

their children lit out for parts undiscovered

rockets shot upward in search of the sky

exceeded in distance, memories covered

branches will grow though the trunk has expired

The apple won't fall very far from the tree  

contained in the flower, released in the seed

you witness their legacy looking at me

for better or worse, for giving, for greed

the way that I set the bottle on the fridge

the ridge of baldness on the side of my head

you don't need to show me or pass on the knowledge

I'll keep their continuance 'til I too am dead

but the blood of their struggles still flows though my veins

an unbroken link, the beginning of time

handcart to horse cart, buses, airplanes

I can't even say what was theirs and what's mine

So I eat at the table my mother was given

I walk on the road that my father laid down

there's no recipe for the dinner of living

no map to show you the way into town

all of us end but it all keeps on going

fruit to be taken, thorns to avoid

what will it come to?  there's no way of knowing

Lois and Alice, Felix and Floyd

M@2010