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/
So beautiful, Jeff. Thank you for sharing your life and heart.
Thanks Faith for the kind words and for taking the time to read