Goodbye, Grandfather

I

Stumbling on a sunset moonrise beach

on Saturday, Aug 23, 2010

I am lost

At sunrise today you drew your last breath,

Your final morning hour sharing this planet 

With me.

Your Grandson.

II

For Eighty Three Years your Body carried 

you!

Eighty three years!  A good body!

Carried you from Europe to America,

The Promised Land,

Where you created

your family.

My family. 

The O’Riordan Family.

III

Dazed, stumbling, in the darkness, into the 

West Maui sea, I crumble like a mountain.

 

You have departed this mortal coil, across the River Styx, into Elysian Fields, into the 

Abyss.

Mother Ocean gathers my broken spirit into her wavy arms, and I ride in the moonlight darkness, her primal rhythms.  

Are you here with me, now, Grandfather?  Where did you go?  

The full moon rises brilliant, slashing misty clouds with radiance.  

Is that you in the sky?  

Is this goodbye?

IV

The darkness has come.

I return from the abyss of the darkening sea.  Steady feet on firm sand.  

I am here, still, now, on this Earth.  I am the man of the man you created.  I carry your legacy.

Farewell, my Grandfather.