Six Gifts On My 89th Birthday
By Milton P. Ehrlich
Arrived as neatly as skimming
a flat stone across Rudd Pond.
Like a farmer who plants seeds,
I’ve watched my kids procreate
offspring who appear like pickerels
jumping out of the water—one
after the other, who I now greet
in their pictures every morning
on the door of my refrigerator.
Their presence softens the sting
of having to leave this world since
I witness what I could have done
and who I should have been, in
the flowering genetic potential
of my grandkids—age 6 to 26.
After I’m gone, I plan to be around
with the help of the Morse Code
that I learned in the U. S. army.
Watch for my dots and dashes.
a flat stone across Rudd Pond.
Like a farmer who plants seeds,
I’ve watched my kids procreate
offspring who appear like pickerels
jumping out of the water—one
after the other, who I now greet
in their pictures every morning
on the door of my refrigerator.
Their presence softens the sting
of having to leave this world since
I witness what I could have done
and who I should have been, in
the flowering genetic potential
of my grandkids—age 6 to 26.
After I’m gone, I plan to be around
with the help of the Morse Code
that I learned in the U. S. army.
Watch for my dots and dashes.
Milton P. Ehrlich Ph.D. is an 89-year-old psychologist and a veteran of the Korean War. He has published poems in Poetry Review, The Antigonish Review, London Grip, Arc Poetry Magazine, Descant Literary Magazine, Wisconsin Review, Red Wheelbarrow, and The New York Times.