GRANDFATHER PERALTA

I never knew you, Grandpa.
Your life ended long before
my mother met my father,
yet because of Mom’s
memories of life with you,
you are as real as anyone
I have ever known.
I see you herding sheep
in the high Arizona mountains,
bringing them into the fold.
I see you laughing with your children.
I see you running for sheriff
and serving faithfully after
you were elected.
I see you worn out,
not with age, but with work,
struggling to feed your family
of fourteen children from two dead wives
killed by time and childbirth,
cancer
and hard labor.
Your legacy is alive though Mom is gone
and so is the man she married,
he who was like you,
hard working,
hard living,
hard loving,
and now
gone.

____________________________

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