The Pictures on the Wall

(For Lee)

     More than just a picture on the wall.

Frozen smiles can never transport the thunder of his laughter.

     More than just a memory left dusty in a dim-lit hall

8 ½ by 11 can never hope to capture the depths and heights of my dad’s ever after.

  

  Eternity can’t be seen in the glossy photo framed,

But if you’d seen those eyes as they twinkled and gleamed

     When life danced within them wildly

You’d know the passion that’s seldom named

     And never known by lives lived idly.

To be caught in his embrace was to be wrapped in steel

     And a heartbeat away from Heaven’s home.

The picture on the wall can’t make you feel safe like I feel

     With just one breath of his cologne.

The silver hair on his head and chin

     In the picture so dignified

Used to mercilessly tickle his little grandchildren

     Making them screech with laughter ‘till they cried.

Then picture on the wall shows a man about to fish

     But for what you cannot tell

Yet I knew that fisherman whose deepest wish

     Was to reel men’s souls back from the lake of hell.

In a recliner with puppies or grandchildren on his knees

     An open Bible on his lap and glasses slipping down his nose,

Would sit snoring a saint in volumes of varying degrees.

     And among the memories I’ll treasure the most will have to be those.

The picture on the wall shows him smile

     As though that’s all he’d ever do.

But I saw Lee’s angry volcano erupt for quite awhile

     When a puppy snatched his steak off the Bar-B-Que.

I’ll not remove the saint from sinner

     That’s something only Jesus should do.

For they both together made up the man that I remember

     And I remember more than a picture

Even if that’s all I have left to cling to.

    

So until Heaven holds us both in its vibrant halls

Dad please know I love you

     Much more than these pictures on the walls.