Sunrise and Sunset – the Wheel of Life. The 9th Lineage Poem. So we near the end of this cycle of Lineage Poems. We began with the roots of ancestors gone long before I was born, but embedded in my every cell; visited and said goodbye to both my father and my mother; welcomed the addition of a new line through marriage; and celebrated the advent of a new generation in the birth of my beloved granddaughter. Now, we turn to the inherent cyclical nature embedded in the fabric of the generations.

Last year I buried my only brother Joseph, and shortly thereafter learned that our son and daughter in law are expecting a second child any day now, a boy this time.

A death and a birth, a brother and a grandson

chance

I haven’t met him yet
just been told he’s in transit
waiting, biding his time

in the warm, purple
amniotic dark. our oldest son 
told us that his son is expected 

in the spring. I clearly remember 
the morning my wife’s water broke 
rushing to the hospital, becoming 

a father for the first time 
I called my older brother 
eager to share the news

but he was unimpressed

just last month I spoke
at his funeral, his ashes in a box
at the front of the room

and there it is, one leaving
just as another is beginning
and in between, such drama

and beauty, love and pain
and none of it endures - none of us
endures

I wonder if I’ll still be here
when the son of my son
snaps open his eyes

and screams 
at the shock of squeezing
into this hard cold world

I hope so, though I know 
 in truth there’s no way  
to protect him

nonetheless
I’d dearly love the chance

to die trying

For more poems about brothers, click here: https://www.momjunction.com/articles/brother-poems_00697143/

And if you’d like to revisit the first in this cycle of Lineage Poems, click here:https://oldbonesnewsnow.com/2022/01/09/a-joyful-noise-root-music-of-the-heartland/