VERDI

By David D. Hambleton

In loving memory of Grace DeVriend

From a popular song comes the line, “You can’t fence time”

Like bittersweet memories of time on the hill

Rabbits and buttercups and bully banty roosters

Horses and cows, not just figures on a window sill

One could all day run and chase with the dogs

High in the hay and low in the river

The pig’s in the pen with her farrowing brood

Arrowheads in the ground we found , lost by the quiver

Deep in the lilac bush a secret bower awaited

Taste-testing and learning from the frozen pump handle

Mice in the granary playing tag with the cats

Girls in the front room telling stories by the candle

Save the yellow rose bush, trampled and blown by the wind

A fence was the answer once someone decided to pitch in

Wind and more wind biting cheeks chilling bones as

Sledding on the front slope came to warming in the kitchen

Playing games with my Fourth Cousins round marbles on our haunches

I admire the power of family, generations held together

The places, colors, and sounds resound in my conscious

Through drought or blue norther, whatever the weather

Grace’s lessons were true, encouragement real

When she told me she loved me, I got the full gist

She taught Mom and taught me to learn and enjoy it

The School Marm left her mark, she’ll surely be missed

She had a quiet peace about her, in the middle of the fray

As she raised beautiful children and loved a hundred more

We’ll see her again one day in the sweet by and by

She lived up to her name and is gone now to His shore

Now carry we on in the way she showed us

Living life ever-sweet like a gift to be treasured

Sharing the blessings our Lord so lovingly bestows

Of His faith, hope and love, not to be measured

As time runs wild and free, wreaking havoc on the world around…

Peace be with you.

Grace be with you always.