Ashes

One lone pine tree in the woods Just east of the house Behind the stone wall Each stone wrestled from the earth Placed carefully atop and beside another, Initial earth-bound stoney randomness Become design One lone pine tree amid the oak and scrub We stand before it My brother and sister and daughter and I. My father’s ashes Weigh heavily in my brother’s hand We speak in tears To each other To my mother, ashes laid there 10 years prior To the gods and spirits come to join us Breath of eternity creeps through the needles above Branches sway in long deep sighs We hold our handfuls of ash Let our fingers slowly open We weep and watch unseeing Some falls to the mossy ground below While the dust that is our father Drifts upward in the breeze Catches the light Places a gentle hand over all we know. ---000--- Later, at the airport I think to have my shoes shined. My daughter reminds me That this is the dust of my father’s ashes, And so the three of us Take one last ride together … ======== Copyright 2006 by E. Bond Francisco