Remembering Dimitris

"Ah! re Dimitri! you skipped away early.

We bought you a ticket for the trip back home

but you preferred to make other arrangements.

You fixed instead for a much longer journey

and left for us to deal with all the things

you had no longer any use for. A mangled body

to be planted near other family in the local dirt

and a few clothes and personal effects to be disposed of.

You might be glad to know I got to keep

a few of those personal effects your ten-speed bike for one

infrequently used as it turned out and for the most part

gathering dust and cobwebs in my garage a series

of garages for it took me some time to decide

to part with it and use the space for other stuff.

Who would have thought a racer bike

would age so fast just by sitting idle

or that this variety the Cadillac of bikes at the time

would be so soon deposed by the mountain kind.

I kept your few records your vinyl LP's

which I play now and then always remembering

the provenance and how it had been you and your 45's

that had turned me on way back when to the fab-four

and later on to others unknowns to me who were

or were soon to be pop-culture icons (one feels

so embarrassed now to be naming the names).

And the most treasured heritance, your old Dictionary

patched up a few times and held together with duct-tape

and now even the tape frayed and in tatters the whole thing

finally falling apart and I am reluctant to let it go

this last living reminder of your short time with us

almost like a family bible where our father

now long gone too once marked the margin

by the tiny picture of the venerable cleric and statesman

a cross with the date of the passing of Makarios.

This heavy book ushering me into the new tongue

the one to which I was once greener than you.

That's all I have for now. Rest in Peace

and keep for us a good spot on the other side."