“I have seen it, son,
“I have seen it all.”

“I know, diddy, but I ain’t seen
“What’s-to-come, since I don’t know when.”

“But, I have seen it, son,
“I have seen it fall.”

“Yes, sir, I hear all you say,
“ ‘Seen it all,’ and ‘seen it fall,’ but you just one man.

“That’s not all, dear boy,
“My sight is not yours to destroy
“What I see will bring you wins, and all the joy.”

“I love you, so, don’t get all mad,
“Even when I kill you, you’re still my dad.”

“Son, your feet, your feet they slip.
“The rock is wet, you lose your grip.”

“S’Okay, old man, the flame’s not hot
“So shut your mouth, they’re all I got.”

“I seem them snakes slidin’ up to bite you.
“Grab my hand, my strength’s not through.”

“No one else I know is, so I’ll stake our name.
“Bless me, pops, I’ll share my shame.’

“Give it here, boy, but you go on
“The trail that’s right to get home upon.”

“Dang, that’s close, my flesh it drips.
“The conflagration twinkles with its ripples.
“Hold me, father, don’t let me fall.”

“I see you slidin’, but that’s not all, hold firm my ol’ paw,
“But, hold you? Never! I can shove, that’s all.”

“Crazy! Sulfur! I die! I’m sick!
“Give me holt’a that there stick.’

“My hand don’t hold no more,
“It jus’ steers and shoves is all.”

“What? I die, don’t you care at all?
“Can’t you care even at all?”

“Boy, I have seen, so hear me now
“You must heed ever bit, and digest it all.”

“I listen, I hear…them birds over yonder
“Is loud. They’s loud, at’s’all.”

“You take what I seen, go on.
“It’s here in my hand that I shove you with.

“What? Where? I need it now.
“Hang on, I’m coming. Why go ye down?”

“To move you yonder, my gig’s nelly done.
“You got more to do than me. More to see than this old one.”

George Henry Plaster 2023, Woodstock, Georgia