Monday Malarkey #8: My Grandfather's Beach

My Grandfather’s beach

On these dunes of sage beach grass

Lingers whispers of the past

The melodic waves move in a dance

and I am instantly entranced.

This is where the old man tread

On weary feet with a heart of dread.

In my memory he’s a softened glow

But as I walk on these shores it grows

his caramel breath dances on me like dew

and I think, his loud gruff laugh is overdue

“Come sit on my lap”, he used to say

And then I knew I was there to stay.

A lady walks in the distance

coming towards me with some insistence.

“Where’s the old man with the cocked hat?

I cannot seem to find his tracks.”

“There is bad news to tell, I fear

He died in his bed last year.”

Of all his memories I seem to dwell

And wonder at all those bitter farewells

His young heart beat with restless capacity

So he joined the war with much alacrity

He wanted to escape his bitter past

And cling to something he could grasp

He went into winter, then summer and fall

Thinking life was nothing special at all.

Until he found his one true love

she was a gift from up above

The wedding bells chimed with fevered bliss

And on his heart there laid a kiss

He vowed to hold her till the tomb

Their love was much like the pureness of the moon.

As the years passed his family grew

But his bitter heart did not stay true

And he left his rosy cheeked delight

like a thief in the night

Not long after, she grew ill

He felt he had a duty to fulfill

And so he stayed by her side

A last endeavor for a husband to provide

In my flesh and my bones

I know his heart was not of stone

In his soul he must have died

and every fiber of his being cried

she was a fire burning bright

leaving the world and out of sight.

Through the flowers and the rain

laid her grave, with her name engrained

His face grew pale

His eyes went stale

but through his mouth came no cry

not even to whisper his last goodbye

Now comes the saddest part

the hardening of the old man’s heart

Into ashes went all her kisses

and into dust went all her wishes

many men walked by her grave

and said “I remember all she gave,”

“indeed she had a fair face

walked in beauty and in grace.”

Her husband did not indeed deserve her

now he walks in waves on yonder

That is where the old man treads

On weary feet, with a heart of dread.