Great grandpa playing Moo-cows with Marc

By a long and tiring Journey from South Africa
Great grandpa came at Christmas time
The gathered family comforted him
And from his big and steady frame he watched them glow
The meeting was altogether good.

His new friend, great grandchild, engaged him in a game
A tiny toy cow held in his large old hand
Evoked the memory sight smell and sound of his grandmother
And her cow Daisy from whom she had milked nourishment
Until at the age of one hundred and two years,
Had given up this daily routine with an excuse of being tired,
Had gone to bed and died.

"Moo"said great grandpa "Mooo, Mooo"
Lowing with gusto he charmed the boy and delighted us.
Our hearth, warmed by successive generations
Was wrapped as if by magic in a gentle fall of soft snow
As it might have done in great, great grandma’s Russia.