Searching For My Dna
And the cemetery was neglected,
The names on stones hard to read.
The only flowers were dandelions,
Still busily spreading their seed.
I came looking for my Grandma,
Whom I had never met.
My daddy had spoken of her
With a love I found hard to forget.
The weather or vandals had toppled stones,
Finding hers was perhaps a lost cause.
Until one grave seemed to call to me
Enough to have made me pause.
I brushed some of the soil from off the stone
And I read my grandma's name.
To find her in such a lonesome place
Seemed to me a dismal shame.
I looked at the grave, lying close to hers
And I found my own grandpa.
I knew how long he had lain there
Through hard winters and spring's thaw.
My daddy left them as a young man
To make a home in the West,
His folks wouldn't leave their little town
The place they loved the best.
The hard times came and Daddy
Couldn't get back to them very often.
When the money came it was too late.
Each of them was in his or her coffin.
I cleaned up the graves the best I could
And I left them lying there.
I knew that God had marked the spot
Of this good and loving pair.
I wanted to tell Daddy I'd found them
But he too is lying low
In a grave in the West where he'd made his home
But I feel somehow he'll know.
Written 5/15/16
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