Old Man

A final goodbye to my grandfather...

Old Man

 

So you follow me old man, wild man,

You with your musky scent,

Soft smile, blue eyes.

You have followed me always haven’t you?

You my teacher, my friend, my old man.

Oh how I miss you, sweet breeze.

 

To the mountains you took and how

they loved you and truly cared.

They praised your name,

They celebrated each stride you took.

You were their master, their Lord

and how fine a ruler you were!

 

With the wind you went and led

and I, the little child would run

and laugh and ask and learn.

I saw how your eyes would dance,

You glowed with pride to see me understand.

I glowed too, just to be with you.

 

Faithful paws trailed you old man,

Four brown paws big and wolfish.

How the Goddess of Beauty adored you

with her lapping tongue and happy fleas.

She misses you, stubborn sir

as you missed each that ruled before her.

 

The seasons came as swift as wind

and with each you aged like I.

Mountain man you were named,

Like you were an infinite force,

You were not infinite! You were old!

My friend. Just mine.

 

You loved best the fluffy white ones,

And when they brought their young

you grew protective of their bleats.

Perhaps you did not love them best.

You loved me, sweet man.

You loved our laughs, our fights, our talks.

 

Silver haired gent, you saw so much.

You tasted the devilish liquid,

You felt its bitter bite, how it beckoned.

But you felt pain, you walked amongst rubble.

You held the limp forms of children.

You! The hero! My hero!

 

Ageing father, time flies too fast

and your strides became shorter.

Oh how I wish I could’ve stopped it.

I would’ve gladly taken your pain.

Stubborn man, you wouldn’t have seen me hurt,

but love my friend, knows no limits.

 

To see you waste away each day,

I felt as though I’d die with you.

No speech left your lips soon, only mutters,

but your eyes still danced,

and I danced inside to see you.

Blue eyes, like wild skies.

 

The world broke the day you left,

the mountains cried, the white ones too,

but it was my heart that shattered

and my soul that sobbed so hard.

Oh I need you and always will.

Old man, why did you go?

 

The men of medicine could no nothing.

Your body just had to waste away,

Sometimes I swallow and think of you.

In the end you couldn’t swallow.

In the end you couldn’t even move.

In the end your heart rested and paused...

 

...and never stopped pausing...

 

So God took you even though I cried.

When I asked why, he couldn’t answer

and neither could you old man.

You stopped talking the day you left

even though the mountains still cry

and the Goddess of Beauty still pines.

 

I kept asking God, “where is my Grandpa?”

No answer. No text. No message. No letter.

I tried to find you, really, I did �"

But how can you find he who does not exist?

How can you talk when no one replies?

You can’t. It doesn’t work that way.

 

Life stopped for some time, when you died,

I stopped somewhere along the way, that day.

My light flickered. My heart paused and restarted.

A part of me wanted my heart to keep pausing.

I imagined what it would be like to walk with you

above the clouds instead of in the grass.

 

One day, I strolled the hills and they

were silent, mourning their lost Lord.

I reached the top and looked out.

My home looked back and somewhere

old man, you looked back too.

I learnt something that day, it’s true.

 

I asked God, “where is my Grandpa?”

He answered even though we have issues.

He answered, “your grandpa’s in you.”

And the wind cried and I cried

and the mountains whispered your name

and I knew, I really knew, you followed me.

 

So you follow me old man, wild man.

You with your musky scent,

Soft smile, blue eyes.

You have followed me always, haven’t you?

You my teacher, my friend, my old man.

Oh how I miss you, sweet breeze.