THE THIRD WORD
Woman, behold your son: behold your mother
(John 19:26-27).
The Word of Relationship

Grandpa called me Butch, tussled my hair,
bounced me on his knees until his knees
grew old and lost their spring; taught me the love of things
sown and grown, too soon gone, the generations.
I now past the middle of life,
children growing, nearly grown,
wife and I a quarter century looking back, blinking,
Mom and Dad having seen it all, still seeing,
look upon us and think what, their little boy
with boys no longer little.
I do not know. I do not ask.
Such wisdom is too terrible for me
with fifty years coming not enough, not nearly,
to pause, to take such stock of things,
the deepness and mystery of love, accumulated pains,
hopes, realized and unrealized dreams,
what song their souls sing
when they behold one such as I
that they sacrificed for,
our story yet unexplored, for now.