gratitude accomplished

How does one reach for,

and obtain gratitude.

This I ask, 

again today.

It is like love,

when pursued,

evades.

This many years,

of service,

does it demand.

No answer, this day.

Still, enjoy I, this gift,

once more.

on resting this day

I awoke this morning,

thinking this may be the day

I overcome, yesterday.

At the end of this day

I find I may,

have been mistaken.

I promised, this morning,

on arising, more compassion

patience, and wisdom.

All you heard was my loud shouting,

and anger with the children,

for failing to conform,

to my expectations.

Unhappiness,

with the breakfast,

when i remembered not,

the baby with teething pain,

that remained awake all night.

So again I come to you, tonight,

hat in hand seeking forgiveness,

and one more day of grace,

tomorrow.

on his life's work

I went to visit with Mom today, 

she wasn't there,

so I sat amongst  his life's,

work,

"The world will little note, 

nor long remember what we say here, 

but it can never forget what they did here."

He was a simple and vulgar man.

He often had trouble, crawling out,

of that whiskey bottle

Never did he create anything substantial,

in the eyes of the world.

Dead at 60 doing the one thing,

that brought him joy,

dancing with his beloved bride.

He spent his final decades,

in service to the good people of his town,

providing them a final resting, place.

Can their be any job, more vulgar,

then a gravedigger?

 

Leo Jesse Herzog, my maternal grandfather,

and gravedigger, most of those graves he dug,

with a shovel, and pick axe.

I wonder then, did he dig,

his own mother's,  grave?

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

It is to be understood, vulgar refers to the lower or peasant class, in the sense of a serf.