1942
Children are born
From the songline
Of our parents' parents.
Out of the past into the future.
Each child is unique.
In this composition of their inheritance.
Grandfather, you left us.
At the end of WWII.
Last known address; Glebe Pt Rd, Sydney.
Grandfather, you left us.
We divorced you.
You took nothing with you.
You left us your clothes.
We didn't keep them.
You left us a son and a daughter.
Grandfather, you left us your wife.
She nurtured us.
Her life was a testimony to your bad judgement.
Grandfather, you left us,
Alive and well.
Growing and prospering.
To grow another generation.
A grand daughter and a grand son.
Two grand daughters.
I can trace the inherited x chromosome to myself.
So I know why you left.
How you went walkabout in your twenties.
Experienced a mood shift.
Left off where you began.
How you were divorced.
How your daughter divorced.
How your daughter's daughter divorced.
Grandfather, you didn't leave us at all.
My son is a copy of your;
Brown eyes,
Olive skin,
Wide temples,
Small eager expression,
Large nose,
Cheeky temperament.
If his genes could speak.
More than his eyes
Could they tell where you have been all this time?
To be reborn in 1999.
Long time to go missing.
Sending no word.
We lit no fire for you,
Who left us burning.
(2000)
(c) Terese Simpson All Rights Reserved
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