Elegy, Ode and Verse for My Grandfather, William Hopkins Lawton ... by John Jay Anthony Licata

                               William Hopkins Lawton

                   

Gathering years
Upon the face
Youth is swept aside
From time and tide,

And left are silvering mantles
Of patina and pride
Against this shifted wind
Under light's dimming cloud,
With steady eye and tilted chin
Life's last stand be proud,

As long the sculpting heart

hammers hard in tempo
To the drum beats

Of the Nineteen Sixties,

And the songs of freedom's cry
Words of justice still warm the lips
And the American Eagle,
Aloft and still upon the high,
Her wing beats of the Eighteen Sixties
Echoing across the sky

And my mother's grandfathers,
Are standing tall with Lincoln,
His voice ringing like silver
And his horseman in the night
Is galloping, flag unfurled, towards destiny
As banners Americana
Seek Liberty's morning light.