ROOTS OF MANY TREES
A grateful thing to know of those
Who did their part; our nation grows
And wise the one who learns the kin
Who traveled 'fore their day.
Not everyone will search the past
To see who won, and who was last
To wander with the minds of old
Who traveled 'fore their day.
Some will clasp what authors wrote
To make the past seem too remote
And lose the heritage of those
Who traveled 'fore their day.
But wouldn't it be fun to try
And see what made them laugh, or cry
Following sooth the spawn of those
Who traveled 'fore our day?
Stories live, tales of those
Who lived before the camera's pose
But hidden, those, from junior's eyes
Of travels 'fore his day.
He hears his elders speak of things
But never to his memory clings
The bit and piece of this and that
Of travels 'fore his day.
Around, the Wheel of Fortune spins
And junior now is old and thin
He wonders if his heirs will care
Who traveled 'fore their day.
Or will his memory lie still
When he is buried 'neath the hill?
Will they know he brought them life-
Who traveled 'fore their day?
What consolation it would be
If he could leave Earth, peacefully
Believing his descent would know
He traveled 'fore their day.
The spirit of a family
Is sprouting ever from its Tree
Its roots unknown, apparently
Who traveled in its day.
The time has come to show we care
For kith, kin, and forebears
Who cared enough to give us Life
And traveled ' fore our day.
Copyright 1982
Charles W. Paige
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