Bravery

Whenever I see black walnuts on the ground, it reminds me of when my dad would take us out to his friend Steve's farm. Each year, we would fill several burlap sacks with unhusked nuts and bring them home.


Steve (the high school superintendent) contracted ALS as a younger man and I remember feeling dad's overwhelming hurt. He didn't talk about it much but still...

It was love when he fashioned his close friend a wire cigarette holding device so that this dying man could smoke in the weeks before he passed.

* * *
I hope to be able to be brave enough to express such examples of love and kindness. I also hope to learn how to be more humble and better recognize my failings as the years I have left, grow smaller.

* * *

The scented path taken
in a lifetime together
of old wagons and teams
and of draught animals
lumbering along in dreams
as an entire shell opened
in earth and black walnut
which mirror the color
of your changing eyes