Waking up to Grandpa Norm wanting to go for a walk
With a cheery smile, he says this will be the last walk of his life
We walk over the dike from the cottage, onto Sunset Beach
There are pelicans in the air and a gentle breeze ruffling our hair
We are both silent and happy, carefully watching every step
He asks me about those things he will never see
What of the lighthouse of Alexandria?
Even though it was destroyed millenia ago
What was it like, he asks
I tell him to look out, to the distant island
And if he squints, he will see one just like it
He will see its towering presence
It is so large we are in its shadow
It now dominates the skyline
Together, we are there, we see it, we wonder
Then, he looks at me again
He asks about the music by Mozart
He has heard it, and loved it, yet, want to hear it again
The adagio of Klavierkonzert
Do I know it, I forget
But I start humming the first song that comes to my mind
I tunelessly try to capture a masterpiece
But soon the air is filled with a soft beauty
This is the music he wants, something beautiful
We both have smiles on our face, as we continue down the beach
Both of our eyes looking over the stones
Maybe we will find an arrowhead
Maybe we will find something we did not even expect could exist
Here, is the grizzled tree stump of a towering giant
Who once upon a time my father rested in the shade of
Here, in the bluffs, are the sand dunes I played in with my brothers
Digging to China, digging a palace
My grandpa and I, on this last day, we see it all.
The world unfolds around us, the universe revealed
The mysteries demystified
Life as a dream, the dream all around us
Everything is, as it is
Everything to be, will be as it is
And here, as the music of my grandfathers life exeunts
…..