Lost and Found

A rusting old Studebaker parked by the sea,

parental voices familial to me.

I’m their son but they’re absentees

of this earthly existence by the sea.

I always feel numb remembering when time had come

and spirited them away to ethereality totally incomprehensible to me

I wonder if they are still together by choice or apart to some degree

a poke, a jab, nag, nag, nag, as Jack and Mary disagree

so Jack is off to his shop to meet his good buddy Stan

to reminisce and partake of the porch-climber wine of the day

Jack is now retired and still climbing those precarious porch steps

so beware of loose knots that make him stumble and grumble “Hume and Rumble.”

My dearest Jack is toiling hard in his garden long after Stan’s gone home.

It’s getting dark but I have faith, he’ll return.

I will whine that he drinks too much wine

but my porch climber he’ll always be.

Jack is back, it’s been so long!

“Dear are you okay? Damn it, where in the hell were you?”

“I’ve been right here waiting for you!”

“J-j-jack is that hair on the top of your head?

Your big ears look a bit smaller… what a handsome young man you are!

Hell’s bells, where are we?”

“Mary you won’t find hell’s bells around here

and you may want to be more selective with your word choice.

Mary, you look so gorgeous!”

“Jack have you been tippling into that porch climber again?”

“Mary, come with me to the stone bridge… Now look at our reflections in the water.”

“Oh my God!!!”

“Now you’ve got it Mary. Welcome home!”

“What about our children, all those we left behind?”

“Soon enough they will be with us for an eternity

so let’s visit with family and friends and have some fun before the others show up!

Life Preserved in Word