Goodbye, a Heroic Sonnet

Baptisia cowered under autumn's ceaseless heat,

distressed and graying 'long the garden fence,

as rusty grass rove under gelid feet

at peace with recompensing cancer's debt.

Pellucid limbs reposed atop a squab,

assuaged by sun-baked warmth and downy fluff,

and once the lancinations dulled to throbs,

he addressed the doting boy aside his cuff:

"'My son, the quiet grows too loud to spurn;

like windless days that sap the stream bed dry

and unseen flames devour'ng bees and birds,

the stillness belays fear and prompts goodbye-

but know I'll still protect you from above

until the day our souls unite again,

'cause even death can't quell a father's love;

embrace me in your memories 'til then...'

and that, old friend, is what you must relay

when Junior holds your paw and cries my name."