A man who understood hard work/second surviving son/from a small poor place/raised rich in faith and knowledge/no money to go beyond seventh grade/though they could repeat it twice/and he was asked to train to be a teachers assistant to the lower grades/but he didn’t care for that/he watched the crafty work of shoemaking/his mother made all their other raiment/once a year the shoemaker came and traced their small feet/came back with precious shoes/ he chose that path/courage leading/ like it did in a far ocean journeying place/in sugar cane fields/ overseer man put gun to his head/he chose to look him in the eye/ if you think I am a chicken/ and not a man/ shoot/he chose courage/again and again and again

In his nineties/he still remembered dressing to the nines/in dementia/he still made grand gestures with a flourish/on neighborhood walks/hesitant/he would hear distant music/ insist that we dance/right there on the avenue/with a face lit up/ like 42nd street and time square/we would dance