A week ago we were in Denver, Colorado, savoring the after-Thanksgiving company of family members as we gathered at my cousin’s for another round of merriment. We headed home the next day.
But the tangible evidence of our annual family gathering was more than mere memories this year. My son, Kevin, wrote an original poem to mark the holiday and shared it with everyone at dinner on Thanksgiving. With his permission, I share it here.
Dedication
To the little fruit fly who spent
ten full minutes of life beside me,
I thank you. To all the words I’ve
loved and which have so moved
me to try to say I love you to all
of you, I thank you. To the second
cousins once removed, may you
not be so removed in the future.
May I be so moved to move nearer
in heart and spirit to all of you who
have so moved me. To James and
our first fist-bump today, I thank you.
To the Red River flooding, and to
the wild deer, turkey, and moose
gallivanting beside her, I thank you.
To Mom and Dad and Mom and
Dad and Mom and Dad and so on
and so on, I thank you and you and
you and you. To give you an inkling
of how long this poem is going to
go on but still go nowhere, not long
not long. To just know in advance
that love itself might so move and
be so moved, I thank you. To think
that I might never have had much
pull with the one upstairs or much
luck with shooting for the moon
or aiming for the stars until I said
I’m in love the whole lopsided herd,
from second cousins once removed to
the lovely and lowly fruit fly. And to
the Lord above and for heaven’s sake,
I choose all of the above to thank
and thank and thank. To move and
move and move through this all-too-
brief life of looking closely at a glass
half-full, I give thanks, to seeing us
inside the little fruit fly crossing the
vast and holy universe, and all of us
always moving always proving our
humble little place within it. I offer
thanks and praise to every one of you
hurtling through time and space and
every blessed thing echoes I so move
I so move. To all of you and us and
you I so move I so move I so move.
Kevin Carollo 11/22/12
Leave a Reply