1.Grandfathers
My grandfathers sprouted
from the Midwestern soil
covering farm lands
stretching from the eastern
to the western mountains
which under-rotated
became the Dust Bowl
and the vineyard of the
Depression Grapes of Wrath
while they respectively
plowed its furrows and healed
plowers’ pain and suff’ring
with produce as payment
for the missing money.
Nineteenth century men,
they lived half through the next,
from pacifying the
west with Gatling Guns to
nuking Nagasaki.
One a loved physician,
other a transplanted
tiller gardened as a
sunlit Californian;
sic transit gloria.
2. Father
My father was born in
the third year of the new
century, along with
the airplane, radio
and the automobile
(Ford’s version anyway).
He owned a tin lizzie,
sold tires in retail stores,
sang on the radio,
cooked on a fishing boat,
painted landscapes in oils,
farmed as the dust approached,
followed the Yellow Brick
Road to the golden coast,
made parts for the bombers
used in the Second War
To End All Wars (They Said)
and lived to see Three More
(Korea , Nam and Gulf),
not to mention Moon Walks,
the baby steps into
the Brave New Age of Space.
He died unrecognized,
not recognizing us.
3. Myself
I was conceived before
the Pearl Harbor attack.
Born in the first summer
of the Second Great War.
A child of renewed hope
in a brighter future
after the clouds of war
clear away and peace reigns;
a time not yet arrived
as the century ends.
My birth coincided
with the first computers
then used to aim the guns
or drop the bombs which helped
win that War and the next,
but maybe not the one
in which I was to serve,
when we decided to
declare a victory
and withdraw (with honor).
Computers changed from swords
to plowshares which I used
in Commerce, not Defense.
4. My Brother
My brother Ron was born
on Easter Sunday of
fourty-four: new life in spring,
and a little brother
who imitated me
in almost everything
I did, although I was
A Tough Act To Follow.
We were both tuba men,
at least to start, both sang
in church choirs, and joined the
Army (in different corps)
doing electronics,
me on missiles and he
a "clerk for DOD"
(Army Security).
I ‘m a computer geek,
he’s a chem technician.
I changed to Catholic,
he stayed Presbyterian.
I live in MaryLand,
he’s a Floridian.
We joined together in
father’s memorium.
5. My Sons
My two sons were born in
The Disco Seventies;
Generation Un-X
without the draft of war
to distract them from the
attainment of their goals.
Unlike each other yet
brothers nevertheless.
Teddy will always be
the oldest, tallest and
"gifted and talented"
with good looks and music.
He, like I, has been known
to overcommit and
procrastinate then crash
after a midnight cram.
Michael knows exactly
what he wants and goes for
it , conscientiously
completing all of his
homework early and well,
with a computer mind
and an entrepreneur’s
feel for the bottom line.