My Pops is Tops.

In a land they call Oregon

Near a Mountain called Hood,

There was a young boy,

Who would walk by the brook.

He learned to skip rocks,

Six, seven, eight skips!
And that's just one reason

My pops is the best. 

He could run like a cheetah,
With lightning fast speed,

One blink and you'd miss him,

That's Pops in the lead!

He could run an 800 with the best of the best

He could run over mountains,

And could pass any test!

This boy was an actor, he would read

Out his lines,

With passion and fervor,

A man for all times!

I like him for that,

Later I will say why,
But for now you should just know

That he's quite a swell guy.

One day on a run,

He looked out at the leaves

He saw beauty there,

In the ridges and trees

Somewhere up on Zigzag,
Near a cloud or lake's mirror,
He said "there's gotta be
Something more here."

So he went to a church

Built like a cabin in woods,

He knelt before God and

Became a leader of youth,
And one fateful day,

On the way to a concert,

He met a swell gal,

Who would become my mother.

But there's more to this guy

Than his sensitive side

He could walk through the desert

Through walls ten feet high!
The concrete would've fried
Some poor office chump.
But my Pops he strode on

With moxie and gump.

And in those ditch-canyons
He met with great battles
And overcame deadly odds

Fighting snakes with great rattles!

But the fight that he wanted was

Something else entirely
He would seek a great mission
So His light could be shining!
Some battles, however, are sometimes lost.
And a fell disease, knocked his plans off their hoss.

But love of God is not far

From loving our neighbor,

And that girl from the concert

Was closer than ever...
But don't think for one minute that

My dad's the sort.
To be irresponsible,
Wishy-washy or bored,
When he looked into her eyes

He made the decision,

If it's marriage we're after,
I'll do the provision.

So he joined the armada,

Our great US Fleet,

He learned to speak Russian,

Which is no minor feat,

With just a few stripes

And his bride hand in hand,

My Pops took his show

On the road to Japan!

But wait now, one second,
We're getting ahead,

One great masterpiece
My Dad made in bed.

With the help of my mom
(She carried most of the load)

My dad had a son,

They were three on this road.

And before you knew it,
Another masterpiece was made,
My l'il bro Justin,

He finally came!!!
A bumpy ride on a chopper

Along the air they raced
Until the blonde guy popped out
At Yokota air base.

And I have to say, just as aside

That brother was one awesome gift for a guy.

But Pops wasn't idle,

Nor just was he working
At night he took courses
And got his degree.

Why do such a thing?
Well the family was growing,

And so my ol' Pops

Became a Marine.

Oh no, I forgot,
One small disappointment.

You see that brother and I,
We had made an appointment.

Our new sister to be,

We reckoned at least

Should come as a hippo,
Or something interesting.

And while she might be his favorite,

We don't hold that against him

This third masterpiece

Was something quite special.

With wisps of blonde hair

Curling round her head,
She was a rare beauty,

Named Elizabeth.

Now Pops  told us stories,

And one of the best,
Was the time the he told us of

The Donuts-that-get.

Giant Chocolates with Sprinkles

Terrorizing the city!!!!

Poor Liz she had nightmares I think,

But for me,

That was one of the funniest stories

In history!

Onward and onward,

Time trudged on and on

Pops trudged on through boot camp,

But nothing could daunt.

With pugil-stick raised high,

And a flinch of his arm

He could beat any foe,

Who tried do Him harm.

Though that school was later,

When try try they did.
They called it SERE school,
I was just a kid.

They did things like simulate

Helicopter crashes,
They waterboarded the guy,

And put him out in the wilderness.

But Pops didn't flinch,
Not even a wink
And before you knew it,

He was Captain, then Major.

Now maybe you think Superman is alright,
And Batman has wings,

And Spiderman's tight.
But my Pops is no fairy tale,

And you know what, this guy,
My Pops, my own flesh

Can fly!  He can fly!!!!

First T-34s and
Then TH-57s
Then Hueys, those choppers,
Pops soared through the heavens!

But he didn't just fly,

He could drive like a beast,

He clocked over 130

One night in Corpus Christi.
But of course this was not

Just some joyride or fling

Not some reckless race
Or some minor thing.
The fourth masterpiece,
She was well on her way,
She was coming already,

She was coming TODAY.

And while Mumsy was heaving

In the passenger seat
Pops was there speeding

And behind him, Police!
But Mom yelled "Pull over!

This thing's gonna blow."
So they came to a bank and they

Made a withdrawal.

The policewoman walked up

"Do you know how fast you were going?"
My Pops he looked up,

With the baby in hand,

"Get a towel for us woman,

Can't you see what just happened!"

There was small Laura Kate,

The fourth masterpiece,

She caught a calm spirit,

After her high-speed chase

And so the small fire-team

Was completed at four;

After that car-bourne delivery

My mom said "NO MORE."

And so the years started turning,
We moved; moved again,
Glendale, Quantico, Pensacola again,
Then we moved way out west,
Adventures just beginning!
My pops flew helicopters

And he also would sing:

We had a few favorites,

My brother and I
Stewball the racehorse,

Should've been a Cowboy,
I myself preferred Garth Brooks' Lonesome Dove,
And the helicoptered beginning of Goodnight Saigon
Where he would beat a CH-46

On his chest.
Maybe your Pops could do it,
But not like the best.

And he couldn't just sing, remember I said,
That he was an actor, and he was well-read.

And many a night, with us four gathered round

He's take us to places no spy drone has found
Crusoe's Island, Jean D'Arc's France, to the top of Swiss mountains

There and back Again!
Each one had a voice, each Gollum and Grinch,
Each Fflewdur and Reepicheep, each pilot and prince.
Such adventures!  Such times!
Such hopes!  And such lives!
At the edge of our seats
We awaited each line.
Til at last Safely Home
Our heroes arrived.

Then my pops did something

That broke my heart at least twice

He went off to the world

And left us behind...

Oh the places you went! 
Where didn't you go?
All the places you went!
Some we'll never know.
Perth and Hong Kong,
Kuala Lumpur,
Bangkok and Arabia, Somalia, Jordan.
And those are just the ones
I remember and probably,

I remember because of the

Postcards you'd write me.

We awaited those letters,

I don't think you know how.
Our lives were on hold,

Like the power was out.

But when you came back,

More adventures to share!
Hiking up through the snow,
Twirling round in the air.

Magic Mountain, Knott's Berry,

Yellowstone, Yosemite,

There was the time we had Easter

In the mountains near Big Bear
And the time we had Christmas

On a train 'cross the Sierra.

We drove across country,

At least five or six times, but the most important one

Was just you and I.

You had tried oh-so-hard

To make up for lost time

I didn't understand

What it was you were trying.
I judged you and hurt you

And said awful things,

I was young and frustrated,

I couldn't understand.

But you persevered,
And you kept loving me.
As hard as I know sometimes that could be.
And so that great trip, that great trip began:
In Arizona we spoke in Indian accents
We zipped up the grapevine and through Sacramento

You showed me the most memorable runs of my life:
Lemon Mountain, Hood River, and up the I-5.
Drove all night through a blizzard, across Montana and more

All the way to Oklahoma,
Where God had plans in store.
I had seen all your failings,

I had seen you as dad,

I had seen you as saint,

But now I had a new friend.

And this was just the beginning,
And you'd done so much more,
Did a Master's in business,

Became a teacher who soared,

Not just to teach teachers about uncontrolled flight

You rewrote the book
So they'd get things right.
And while you weren't quite a brain surgeon

With the things that came next...
What couldn't you do?

Nothing, I expect.

You took your show on the road,
With a salesman gig

But when that wasn't so great,

You stepped out in faith.

And LCC's better

For its Business Professor

And student life dude,

Who of course, was you!

You volunteered with kids,
Found us a new sister!
And when the going got tough

You began to dig deeper.

And while I don't know just when
I will see you or how.
And I don't know what's in store

For the next or the now.
I know God will do still greater things

With a great guy like you,
With your brains and your wings,

Nothing can stop you!

So be strong and courageous!
Have faith, be a man,

With courage to change and

Your bride hand in hand,

This story we know has only begun,
And has many adventures

Past year fifty-one.

Though termites tried to eat us

Though arguments came

Though I remember the words

Of shame and of blame.

Though I know he's not perfect,
I still say I'm glad

To have the honor of having

A wonderful dad.

So I'll take all comers,

Bushes, Obamas,
Princes or Barrimores,

Gateses and Jobses,
I think ya'll know it's clear

Who's the cream of the crops!
In this here blue world
My Pops is tops.

Dying

Dear me,

I am dying soon,
After a series of ordinary 24-bit days.
There might be a wedding.
It might be love.
Achievment 2.0.
Children. 
It's just a blink.

Y la Muerte is putting on a wedding dress
And contact lenses.

And the grandfather tick tok time
Left the yard; still playing blind man's
Bluff grasping
But the silent girl in the black dress wants to be found and kissed.

I'm not scared of lying back in a hearse with her
And tasting her braces,
And I'm not scared of worms;
I'm terrified of living a story that you could put into a two-hour movie.
Simple.  Meaningless.
Rememberances will always fade to ribbons
Like yellowed Gazettes and portraits
YOLO Eventually no one cares
This too, is meaningless, a chasing after the paper-shredded breeze
And to love and be loved.
Are we capable of such mundane miracles?
I am going to die and my breath isn't going to hold out
Much longer
What mystery?  
This cheap biting breath, stinking of immortality or
Perhaps it's precious, it's leaking
Tube spoke won't stop.
So why bother waving or wasting your minutes holding me.
The train is coming; it's not stopping.

You've got hourglass eyes building sandcastles and my secondhand on your
Hourglass waist is telling you lies and we're an hour past time breathing secondhand
Smoke in our trembling secondhand skins.
Slow down, you realize this could kill us, right?

Standing on a one track repeat
I can't tell if that's the tunnellight beep beep beep of alarm clock
Or the bedside pulse machine
Trailing off as I fall asleep
It doesn't seem real anymore.
Persik's baby fingertips stretching and drumming
Trying to hold.

Hold hold on.  I'm growing up.
It's not something I'm proud of,
Nothing to be done.
I miss the possibilities,
The present requires commitment.
The present requires all of me and there's no time for poems or friends or projects or daydreams
Or anything there's no time at all.
There's just unmetronomed heart murmurs and breath beats
Stealing a gasp against the sickle moon and the grasping Pacific
Smoothing a small pillar of sand back into
Shore.
Here we go round the prickly pear

I invited Jesus to the wedding, I hope
He won't be busy, I hope
He'll take the kiss for me.
Grandfather takes my arm, music starts,
I'd invite you too darling but there's not much to see.

Mole-like, I doubt my eyes.
Seedlike, I doubt my tries.
Sunlight, perhaps it's night.
They're throwing rice and the people are starving;
Altars are places for blood.
I pass out in the foyer and
Grandfather willow with his river arms wraps and
Suffocates me in the green and loam of his bosom
And the spectre screams because
He knows one day he will be real
A pop of alarms and air raids and empty graves.
And the bright light of a nuclear eternity
Will whitewash our shadows into the pavement.