Grand Memories

Reaching for the warmth of your voice
I listen to the pictures you hold dear in your mind
~
laughing with the children
tongues encircling the salt lick
while cows wonder
~
my father, the eldest, fingering precious nails
hammers with carpenter's zeal
until the shed is decorated in steel
~
still older, fearful at the window
he watches the approaching hail that will drive them away
from the farm, his love
~
~

I hear the words, pictures
from your aged albums-
may I see them all by heart, too