La Famiglia

“Family Reunion” Lithograph by Roger Medearis From americanart.si.edu

the idea of the ideal
defeats distance
confers a proximity
horizon encircles
our everything
everywhere close
within reach
touchable worlds
the each of us make
green as summer
alive with affection
that breathes forth
like breezes refreshing
warm wide open spaces
unbounded metonymy
limning the landscape
that decorates
depths of the heart
flesh blood and eidola
gather and flourish
exchanging their
discontinuities
journeying out of
their solitaires
mocking the putative
powers of mere
separation with
vigorous bear hugs
we personal pioneers
chance rediscovery
seeking and finding
the old stirring scenes
the exciting old passages
brought fresh and new
into light of this
uncommon season

it doesn’t get better
than fathers and mothers
and daughters and sons
on their mountain
so strong and so thoughtful
it lifts all their memories
into the present
reunified families
four generations
of birth life and death
tolled in trials and triumphs
rewashed in the bath
of a blue sweeping sky
given fragrant caress
by a radiant tendermost
ancestral sun
once again
again once
when the once
is enough
for forever