What to do
when the granite hard rock
of caretaker love
you have been standing
life long on
thoughtless
of his
mortal span
turns all of a suddenness
to unpredictable
uncertain
gritty
eye-stung
sand;

Shifting
in the hot dryness
of a damaging
diseased wind
he drifts and fades
falling
into that
final barrenness;
a lunar landscape
devoid
of all his former
clarity
his fierce held
inner burning
god hewn fire –
and his own
wondrous
man made
light.

For my father.