Will de Kypia
A Posy of Poems

HOLIDAYS
In Japan they have a national holiday
called seijin no hi, “Coming of Age Day,”
when young people officially accept their
responsibilities as adults. I don’t think
we have an equivalent holiday here.

There’s also keiro no hi,
“Respect for the Aged Day.”
I know we don’t have that one.

OLD FRIENDS
If one guy asks another "Hey, didn't what's his face
use to live somewhere around here?" and the other guy
replies "No, that wasn't him, that was his brother Zachary,”
well, you can bet those two dudes know each other real good.

CHILDREN NEED ROOTS BUT…
Children should know where they came from,
walk on the stones their great-grandparents trod.

Their hands should sift the ancestral tillage,
mouths taste the fare that nourished forebears.

But children need wings as well, to leave
the old place and plant their roots in new soil.

If they must choose only one,
either roots or else wings—

Wings________

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