FOR BILL

Sometimes we avoid talking to someone,
We sense they don’t like us,
Or we are afraid of them,
For what they might say or see in us.
So there it is.
You were always kind,
Whenever you spoke,
Gentle and concerned and sweet
A father, a brother, a husband
An explorer, an engineer
The number 1 quality being,
The steadily applied effort of rational analysis.
The persistence of reason in a seemingly chaotic universe.
You may have doubted your own capacity to love
As true lovers often do.
But what other source would drive you,
To spend your vacation hours and days,
To move water 200 feet
And lift the burden from family,
Of lugging pail after pail up the sloping river bank.
We were strangers,
Pushed together by bonds of family.
When we spoke we would try and figure one another out.
Quizzically we would ask,
“Now, why are you here?”
A good question,
In all cases.
I will miss you for this question,
And for all your kindness, gentle voice and wit
That reminds us all so cleverly of your father.
Rest easy tonight,
For Saint Peter will surely let you pass,
Belly Button or not.