Stone Flowers

STONE FLOWERS In north-west Indiana on a meager patch of ground stone flowers greet the morning, stillness there, no other sound. I walk among the headstones taking note of those I knew, thinking of their loved ones, how their courage saw them through. There is no stone to guide me to the one I came to see, his ashes had been scattered on a hill of sapling trees. Thirty years have come and gone, he would surely be amazed. Little trees, now fully grown, all aglow in autumn blaze. I stand in awed silence as the sun comes streaming through, my father was my best friend and the greatest man I knew.