Four Generations Captured

Six males aged from eighty-seven
to three years old – a man, his son,
two grandsons, and two great-grandsons –
captured for all time in a photograph.

Four generations of one family –
two old men, their dreams lived,
now in retirement, their futures behind them;
two young men at their peak,
fulfilling their dreams, living their futures;
two small boys of six and three,
learning and dreaming, their futures before them
unformed and full of unlimited opportunity –
posed as four links in the chain of immortality.

As I, the son, gaze upon this photograph,
seeing the past and the future of my family,
I look with satisfaction and with pride,
for I know that long after my father and I
both have joined the list of ancestors past,
my sons and their sons and their sons
will come to cherish this family portrait
and will show it with love and pride to my
great- and greater-grandsons unknown.

Hopefully, their thoughts of me will tug
at their hearts and bring them a smile…
and maybe then, paying the outrageous prices
charged by the photographer will seem worthwhile.