Correction to Cider Post

I made a error on the cider post - the allspice should have been reduced to 1/2 teaspoon.  I have corrected this in the orginal post but if you downloaded this before 2/11/2012 you will want to change your copy.

In Memory of Jack

My uncle Jack M. Koonce died last week.  I understand that in his last few years, he had suffered from Alzheimer’s.  I had not seen him in over a decade since he and my aunt were no longer married, and so we had lost touch.  Like all of us, he was a complex individual and his life left behind a mixture of achievements and failures but in our relationship, he was always a kind soul. Since he had enjoyed flying as a young man, I wrote this in honor of his life and last journey.  I hope he now has the clarity of thought in heaven that Alzheimer’s had taken from him at the end of his life.

Flight into Dawn
by K. Renee Juneau

The last slender rays of winter,
Outline a hanger in the morning mist.
Edges silvered in the frigid cold,
Binding panes of murky glass.

Electric fire in windows blaze,
Painting chevrons as doors fold back,
Dawn crescendoed by engine roar;
The preparation for one last flight.

I watch you leave the earth behind,
Unsteady at first, but then with certain grace,
Rising quickly in the cloudless blue,
Fading fast in a trick of sight.

Aimless rivers now seek the sea.
Briars loosen thorns to weave,
Paths through meadows long neglected
To gardens edged with bittersweet.

The sun has burned the mist away.
The day forms crisp and clear.
Your wing dips in a final turn,
Toward patchwork fully whole at last.

You are gone but I see you still.
I know the ending of the flight,
Safely landing on the golden shore,
Finally freed from the fog of night.