A Father's Day Elegy for a Dead Dad

Upon the season’s sultry breeze

The lilac wastes her perfumed breath

While sunlight streams through trembling trees

To light the land of midnight death

 

The swallows sigh upon the wing

The swift and song thrush sing so soft

As eagle, on his throne, as king

Above the clouds soars safe aloft

 

And I, an orphan, dare to dream

Though I am quintessential dust

Beneath the sky I vainly scheme

To turn the tide of doubt to trust

 

But oh, my father, where are you

On this sad summer’s soulless day?

From bones now cold and steely blue

Does soul of yours still pine away?

 

Beside your long-neglected grave

I stand all statuesque and stare

As glimmer of the life you gave

Pours through my veins like pagan’s prayer