LAST TIME I SAW HIM

It was early morning I do recall, many sunrises and sunsets ago,

To bed, early that night before tomorrow would surely make a change.

Morning was morning as he opened the door to a new day, heading for work,

Like a dream those days past don’t seem real anymore, faded and foggy.

Last time I saw him I was a boy and he was going off to earn a living for the day,

Never again would he be seen by me or I by him as day by day time would change.

Seasons would go by, turning Into years as one day I would become as he was, a man,

I have existed in this world without him for most of my life, I have outgrown him in age.

I remember his time here with me, It was very short but he had his own life before mine,

His time as a child was also somehow the same as mine in that he played the same way.

He grew and became who he was, a navy man and a machinist who traveled during Korea,

On a ship to many countries, he stopped, a journal and much poetry left behind as he touched the sky.

More than thirty four years after his son grew up without him, a very special package sent for Christmas,

Pictures of a father whose face was fading, a journal of his Korean war battle, and poetry, different than me.

Last time I saw him, a little boy standing with his father watching as he left, a final goodbye, touch the sky.

Keith Garrett