''Grandpa's Autumn''

Bird songs drift through the tall trees and photographs are floating in my mind and conversations echo in the deep where crumbling amber leaves fall. I see an old man with a walker- a shadow of a man his hands are gnarled his words are blurred and meaningless. At the cottage pier I see him in my mind beside the flowing river the endless winding river . . . I miss grandpa most when the leaves are falling and horses gallop in the fields, wild and free oh, grandpa loved his horses. The bird feeders that grandpa made are empty but hopeful birds are twittering still and my grandpa is gone- yet not gone . . . I see him fishing off the pier and walking his dog sitting at the dining room table until he could not hold a fork anymore . . . Then an empty hospital bed with the sun shining in a girl weeping at the living room window I see all this in my mind every memory is whispering to me especially when the horses are running free and leaves are falling . . . _________________________ May 12, 2017 Free Verse/"Grandpa's Autumn" Copyright Protected, ID 900126 Submitted to the contest, Sad Free Verse in 2017 Only sponsor, Laura Loo First Place