Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Remembering Dimitris

"Ah! re Dimitri! you skipped away early.

We bought you a ticket for the trip back home

but you preferred to make other arrangements.

You fixed instead for a much longer journey

and left for us to deal with all the things

you had no longer any use for. A mangled body

to be planted near other family in the local dirt

and a few clothes and personal effects to be disposed of.

You might be glad to know I got to keep

a few of those personal effects your ten-speed bike for one

infrequently used as it turned out and for the most part

gathering dust and cobwebs in my garage a series

of garages for it took me some time to decide

to part with it and use the space for other stuff.

Who would have thought a racer bike

would age so fast just by sitting idle

or that this variety the Cadillac of bikes at the time

would be so soon deposed by the mountain kind.

I kept your few records your vinyl LP's

which I play now and then always remembering

the provenance and how it had been you and your 45's

that had turned me on way back when to the fab-four

and later on to others unknowns to me who were

or were soon to be pop-culture icons (one feels

so embarrassed now to be naming the names).

And the most treasured heritance, your old Dictionary

patched up a few times and held together with duct-tape

and now even the tape frayed and in tatters the whole thing

finally falling apart and I am reluctant to let it go

this last living reminder of your short time with us

almost like a family bible where our father

now long gone too once marked the margin

by the tiny picture of the venerable cleric and statesman

a cross with the date of the passing of Makarios.

This heavy book ushering me into the new tongue

the one to which I was once greener than you.

That's all I have for now. Rest in Peace

and keep for us a good spot on the other side."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dimitri aka Jamesycakes.....you are so sweet to post this about your uncle who has been gone 40 years now. Too young, as he was only 20 when he passed away. Mombo