Remember the times we used to set
out on our front porch in the swing
enjoying the tulips of an Iowa spring
sprouting in our flower bed.
You were ever so ornery to the last;
your hands still stained with garden dirt.
“You keep those off of my brand new skirt,”
sparing you none of my famous sass.
It started to rain one afternoon
as we were talking of this and that;
I stroked the hair of our tabby cat, while
you talked of high and mighty dreams.
A breeze would sometimes come and cool;
the scent of sweet corn on the air,
“Almost that time to go to the fair,”
I can still hear your tenor voice remark.
As neighbors would pass they’d wave hello.
Everybody knew your name.
Your care and humility brought you fame,
and others knew they could count on you.
The years went by without blinking an eye.
We grew old and gray while our heads were turned,
passed along bits of the things we had learned, as
we walked the path laid out for us.
I kissed you farewell on a September day.
Your strength was gone, the time had arrived
to let you awake in another life
where you were freed to thrive again.