Lacuna

wearyourrealeyes:

Do you remember

Waiting on the concrete, smiling

as I, with an unsullied demeanor

try to catch my breath

from the futile attempts

at chasing kits of pigeons 

by the sidewalk,

as you were walking me home.

Then pointing upwards,

I strain my ears and try to tell the difference

between thunder and the sound of airplanes

while you explained

with laugh lines complementing the wisdom in your eyes,

as you were walking me home.

A labourer, a coolie, a sailor,

the provider of two lands

a father who was never in.

The privilege of being chosen to raise

as a self willed act of atonement

I cannot express.

As always, seized by the greatest abductor.

But in your last breath

with Alzheimer’s around your neck,

I hope you do remember

Like the wrinkled ridges of your thumbprint

remain pressed onto the convolutions of my brain.

Just like mine on yours,

only you can’t recall.

1927- 2011