I never Knew

about family

I never knew my Great Grandfather, other than through pictures,

He looks like me,

Lean the same way, to the right, about the same height, and

We share the same name

The last name was taken from masts of great ships, riggings abroad,

Though it isn’t our “real” name, it is a good name.

I never knew my great grandmother, even as I saw her in dreams,

Spent on the plains riding white mares and

Spreading our wings to catch the wind and fly over the

Canyon of Dreams,

Sights seen in balefires and skin drums reverberating the heart-beat of our people.

I barely knew my grandfather,

The way he played his diatonic, slide-bar German Honer*,

To the way he wore his blind glasses and kept a “creep stick” by his side

And how he traced his hand and mine, one on top the other

Like inter-woven blankets with the design of his heart…

I play his harmonica,

It smells and tastes of the old home and brings back memories of sweet-tea, superman pajamas, and peanut-butter on a spoons and the backwards letter “Y” he would always make writing his name.

I know my father,

The way he walks, the way he talks, the same way I do

Works and slaves, for a better living, an uphill battle for any tired soldier

End up only bent over and broken working for a living

Isn’t much of a living when aging in dog years…

I know the man in the mirror,

The mask he wears

Covers the scars of broken promises and living in a world full of illusions

I know the man in this reflection,

When I look at him I see

All the generations behind him

What is now,

And yet to be…

© Joseph Riggs