Yo--Dad! Is that you?

AT CHRISTMAS TIME, DAD,

when we sing carols in church,

that one line in the one song

I've been singing nearly all

of my 73 years, O come,

O come, Emmanuel,

plain chant antiphons

antiphons attached to Magnificat

at Vespers, like singing six

notes for four syllables, holding

that word, your name

folded into the middle,

Emmanuel, God Amongst Us,

that has me calling you, remembering

too, the photos, and your passing

from a disappeared town

in rural North Dakota, all that

I've looked for, the country cemetery

with its grasses and mosquitoes,

that strange man, my grandfather

Victor who named you, I

have lived more than half my life

without you. Text from a century

gone, each of five verses opening

a name for Messiah, each day

of the week leading to Christmas.

I shall be with you tomorrow.

Ero cras, from original Latin text,

reverse acrostic, each chant

including an Old Testament--

Hebrew Bible name. Dad,

Father Emmanuel, walking around

in my dreams after all these years,

Tomorrow, then, old man,

tomorrow, yesterday and today.

Jim

24 December 2018