The Irresistible Embrace Of Existence Poem by Patti Masterman

Its funny how I inherited certain characteristics from my parents-
Even though I was adopted at three days old.
My Dads love of camping, and being in the outdoors;
My Mothers love of all things lemon, and conversation.
These things they bequeathed to me at a tender age,
I guess it was to fortify us against the future sadness
That no one living can completely avoid.
Like the day my father was wheeled out in a chair
To a waiting van, having been bedridden for days already:
He would never return again to his home,
Where he farmed the dirt for fifty years and
His pride showed in his garden, his yard, his animals.
I was the sole mourner who appeared in the front yard
To accompany him his last short distance into forever-
My mother, as befitted the chief mourner, remained inside
The house, where she reigned alone
The last few years after he had gone.
I was at her side when she died.
She would never have been the type
To want to die alone.
But then there are those things I inherited from
My new family; the one I picked, and the child
Who picked me-
From inside a dream, she asked if she could come
To live with me and be my baby;
Silently she communicated this, and to this day we
Are able to silently understand so many things
That pass between the two of us,
No words necessary at all.
While pregnant I dreamed a dog consumed her,
And she was taken with dogs and wolves from
The first time she laid eyes upon them.
From my spouse, I inherited a love of the universe
And the stars, and the way the world appears to run itself;
I loved it first as a child, but life got in the way,
And I had almost forgotten my love
Till I saw the stars again in my future husbands eyes.
I guess the right things find you, when you have
Given up on ever finding them yourself.
If words can recall all the love I have been embraced with,
Then nothing is written in vain.