Poem for the Day - Ode to Grandparents

Ode to Grandparents

Your faces shine like oval moons

over the green gate,

rose blossoms at your feet.

You left, marking a passage of time

forced through the sea
in grey light.

Your voices return through
the silence, spreading coins

on a kitchen counter.

Us, mischievous kids
bypassing the deli

for shrinking waves at Manly

our feet rushing back

in their thunderous return.

The blossoms are swept away, gate

abandoned. Curvature of tin roof
and pepper pot chimney, gone.

Such moments to think back on

as history, as youth ―

a world of watercourses that held

a fun pier, green sea divers

with knives like missing teeth.

Yet, pines still spread their mass

along the esplanade,

seas drip from children's hands

while carnivals reel in Sunday marches.

Grandma, Grandpa, you seem to have

sunk into silence, but I did notice
early this morning

red rose blossoms

falling at my door.