Father and son...

We are the same

you and me

we come from the same blood

although –

we fought in different wars

we pulled the same trigger

looked through the same sights

we loved different women

laughed,

drank cheap wine

and hot beer

we cried,

we dreamed

and came to blows

in the backyard

ending up,

bloody with friends.

We are the same

you and me

leading drunken brawls in bars,

found in passionate embraces with female strangers,

yet – we are the same

you and me

we are father and son.

Today,

you lay struggling to live,

tubed

taped

wired

wrapped

blanketed

heavily drugged

but loved

and cared for

flushed with

Vancomycin and

Mycostatin

quieted by

Morphine or

Acetaminophen

when necessary.

And we sit attending

listening

helplessly sometimes

to the painful moaning,
brothers and sisters

hands on your arthritic hands,

or on your forehead

holding

cold wash clothes

hearing the sounds

trying to be words

coming from your mouth.

We can only soothe

with ice chips

or wet wash clothes

as when we were sick as

children, laid upon our own faces.

Father, we are the same

you and me

and I weep

for the loss

of the body

that carries your spirit

alive,

strong

and wiling

yet besieged to discover a

suitable place to sing again.

Yes, we are the same

you and me

father and son

joined by love,

sperm and egg

attached by birth and always death

children and grandchildren

the ever revolving

merry-go-round of life.

It began when

a man and woman

connected and

joined

attracted in some

magnetic and magic

moment that

changes one another’s history –

creates a life

and a certain genius…

Einstein

Neruda

Freud

Hemingway

Picasso

Frost

Michelangelo

Dante

Gandhi

Mother Teresa

We are the same

you and me

father and son

joined by love

and a grand mystery.

Doug Claybourne – for Wayne Claybourne – 11.01.11 In hospital in Oklahoma

Copyright © 2011. Doug Claybourne. All Rights Reserved.