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Six Relatives

‘can’t change your family but you are free to choose your friends’

Michael’s brother is demented and only remembers the distant past

his parents are long dead they died in a car crash at illegitimate speed

every now and then he visits their graves and leaves a Match Box car

instead of flowers and lights a joint for Peace just to annoy them a bit

illegal traffic is one of the burdens of modern society and transport


luckily for him he fathered three children who don’t know what hit them

when he is diagnosed with cancer but they promise to look after him

a fortunate story of love and the transmission of generational kindness

life’s hardships are relative and sometimes a concept of irrational thought

now it stands him in good stead to have followed a path of emotions


Michael has chosen his own relative friends at free will and he

cherishes them all in equal proportions and knows how to relate


            	the Liberty to decide when to give and when to receive

		undeterred by strict norms and unauthorized obligations
	

			a notion of Justice derived from virtues and a moral law

			from within along fairness equity rectitude without fail


				Honesty in all his endeavours as much as the very truth

				to be spoken when silence and falsification where easier


			unmistakeable Charity in the face of a self-righteous world

			requesting nothing in return because he is privileged by birth


		Communication in deeds and in words without anger or venom

		because once acted or spoken it is difficult to retract a position


most of all he is only too well aware that Perspectives are contingent

as well as embedded in context but that he can craft from his own Self


he Reads Writes Feels Reasons and Stakes his claim at times Surrenders

connects what seems to be relative but does not change on his last journey


Michael’s brother does not suffer from the loss of engaging with his relatives

his parents died a pain free death at the crossroad of the reaper’s stark scythe

and his children will tell his story outlook and attitude to relatives and death

he is a blessed man and he keeps a small vial of morphine for when time calls


his compassionate wife who by law is not a relative will help with the plunger



02 November 2020

Copyright © | Year Posted 2020




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