An Open Gate

This Christmas photo, circa 1976 or so, takes me back to my growing up years when we spent every holiday in south Texas with both sets of grandparents. Here I am with Pappy, Cappy's daddy. Pappy had more interesting stories than could possibly fill this blog, and loved to tell them over and over into late hours of the night.

Written this year by my Aunt Francine, my dad's sister, this poem wraps up all those memorable Christmases. I don't know how she managed to fit all these family memories into a few lines, except that she's her mother's daughter. No surprise there. Every line represents a hundred back stories.
Thank you, Aunt Francine, for remembering, for writing, for rhyming our stories. Love you much, and Merry Christmas.

An Open Gate

An open gate
under an old oak tree
A quirky little country club
we call family

Sell ice to the Eskimo, be a doctor, a model
build and pilot your own plane
What a trip up past the windmill
to the house at the top of the lane

A fair haired child on a pony
the CEO unloading hay
an artist at living digging a ditch
and pretty people in for the holiday

Someone grand at the piano
the kitchen full around a veggie tray
Triumphant laughter from the game room
as dominoes click and pool sticks go into play

Barbie babes parading braids
Computer guys playful with expertise
A cowboy in his copter flying by
after three tours with the Vietnamese

Cattle dotting the view from the pool
Big Fat and Happy, Sheba, Brahma and Bo
Driving instructors out on the range
And world problems solved out on the patio

Fireworks flaring, coyotes caroling
Hay rides and city lights on display
If you ever got to finish a sentence
No one was listening to ya anyway

Parting gifts include a legacy
Roots and wings inclusively
An open gate under an old oak tree
What on earth could be more Heavenly...                                  

Francine
December 2011

Comments

Krista Sanders said…
I loved this poem and have some questions for you later. However, when I read the title of the post, I thought I would be reading something like the Adventures of Cross and Ruby.