He shuffled with the
   gait of 
      heavy years
Of feeding cattle
   lifting hay

Thoughts of passing
   homes and towns
      revolve and drown
Within the rising dams
And rushing currents
Washed upon the sides
   of rusty barns
And rooftops
   settled lonely
      in abandoned fields
And forests
   ripe to rape
      the footstep
Of a fading
   tin type
      moment 
On the lip 
   of grandpa's tear

(c) 1996 James Oliver Smith, Jr