Round Pond visit July 11, 2016

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intermittent

You arrive happy flashing that winning smile

Talking about getting the best medicine

After playing this morning with all three grandkids

Having fun and teaching through games.

It’s a world of wonder a gift to adults

When you are three, four and five

Learning and exploring everything

Beginning with no thought of ending.

You call the old Vietnamese restaurant

Saying, “This is grandpa and I want my usual.”

A familiar ritual ordering take out lunch

Where you first went in your youth.

We take you to walk around Laurelwood garden

A place nearby you have never been before

Glad to hear how it pleases you

“This place is delightful!  So peaceful.”

We sit briefly on an overlook

I see your eyes close with a dreamy smile

This is the beginning of the first hiatus

Pausing your treatment until more is needed.

The progression that ends eventually

Has an uncertain timetable some years from now.

We talk about the near term future

Making plans to spend more time together.

You show me what you have in your car

Supplied with toys and games and a skateboard

In the front seat well, the back seat and the trunk

Rolling along grandpa brings happy times.

You take out a sticker puzzle book to show me

Find the hidden pictures in the big picture

Holding it open so we can do it together

Two old men having fun being kids again.

Buckabear Pond July 9, 2016

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anticipating Bastille Day

Five days before your birthday every year

Your father’s birthday came first.

Nine days before your birthday

Your father’s life ceased with his last breath.

As your birthday approaches those memories

Surface again happy and sad mixed together

The turns and twists of the times of your life

How the years change us and the world.

Being with you next to me sharing your life

Affected by your feelings as you are mine

Perhaps even melding into the same biome

It’s good that we get along so well.

This perfect summer day is ours

Getting out in the cool morning air

The cloudless blue sky expands to infinite reach

We glide in the breeze on our bikes.

This timeless trip through the shaded woods

Following the splashing stream past the mergansers

Ends in the town park by the pollywog pond

Returning home under cumulus cloud thermals.

You look in the mirror and see signs of age

But I see a fit body and a sympathetic self

A kind person who still enjoys a good laugh

The kind of person I want to be with.