The Mountains
staring out
the window
at the mountains
majestic
always gets me
one of the last things he ever told me
was about mountains
“life is about peaks and valleys …
peaks and valleys”
shortly before he died
he buried his mother
and shortly after that
I buried him
we sat alone at a picnic table
and he looked at me with such joy and said
if he died tomorrow
he’d die a happy man
‘cause I was there
with him
getting off that plane
and seeing him standing there
with open arms
his hair no longer black but gray
his laughter the same sound
that twinkle in his eye
him hollering out my nickname
holding me like he did
when I was little
that was the peak
getting that call
seeing him on that hospital bed
beneath those glaring lights
his arms limp by his side
his skin still warm
that was the valley
low
TL