My son Jude turns 16 this Sunday (November 4). Here’s a new one I wrote for him, after a stroll at Radnor Lake. Happy Birthday, Jude – with all my love – always. Dad.
Carry Me
Rambling autumn walk,
burnt colors turn to sounds
woodpecker clouds
hammer the trees
like claves in an orchestra
lagging slightly off the beat
in this quiet bossanova forest
Rustling footprints scatter
silence to the fall. familiar
critters cross my trail
crying in the distance
taking me from today
to another time. carry me
you’d shout. carry me
the rest of the way
before we hardly started
Reaching outstretched arms
I’d pick you up cradle you
proud of who I was
proud of who we were
until we reached a point
where your feet touched the ground
and you ran around the corner
where I could no longer see
the light of your life
Embracing your own love
finding your own happiness
and sometimes, crazy sorrow,
please know I keep on walking
not very far behind
always, just in case.
know I do my best to
carry you to freedom
as long as I can
On my rambling autumn walk
Doug Hoekstra 