Kanyini

You visited me in a dream last night
But when I awoke, you were nowhere to be seen
That didn’t stop me from seeing you
When I glimpsed a stranger’s face on the street that day.

The rhapsody of Sweet Caroline comes over the radio
And out of the corner of my eye I see you
Reaching out
But I can’t touch you.

I read ‘The Remember Balloons’ to Mum a while back
We cried together while we thought of you
For a while, I thought I would forget what you were like, before you lost your balloons
But when I see you in my dreams
In strangers' faces
Or singing along to Neil Diamond
I know I was wrong.

Instead, I remember those trees we planted together
And that egg cup you carved me from wood.
I remember the bus trips we took
And the mountains we skied.

And now I understand
How nature has taught us that interconnectedness is more
Than the sharp line of distinction we draw between the living and the non-living
And that mere basic existence is not all that connects us.

Like the earth and the elements, you live on somewhere much deeper and greater than that, Grandpa.