The 99 Poem Challenge (Fox-Trot-9) ✓

45. Ballade -- Tears for My Father

The 99 Poem Challenge
Fox-Trot-9

45. Ballade — Tears for My Father

1

It's taking you from me: relentlessly
   But slowly by the slightest cuts each day,
The Reaper's scythe expunges memory,
   And you are left with fewer words to say;
   You gesture with your hands in your dismay
T' express the thoughts you hold inside your head,
   But more and more, they come in disarray;
It's times like these that make a tear to shed.

2

And yet you take it all in gallantry,
   Fighting it back, still charging through the fray
Of mist-shrouded thoughts with happiness for me;
   You joke around, you keep good cheer and play
   The fool, you keep your humor anyway,
Leaving me speechless with relief instead;
   But I know well your words will slip away;
It's times like these that make a tear to shed.

3

You cannot know the horrors that I see
   Unfolding ere my eyes the sad display,
Marking out all the moments that decree
   The lingering death of days I cannot stay,
   Nor ask of Time for further years' delay;
I know those days of darkness lie ahead,
   When your life's candle flickers in His sway;
It's times like these that make a tear to shed.

(Envoi)

    I try to hide my tears, for tears betray
   Your son's weakness to keep such thoughts at bay,
When words come hard and strength has fled;
   Just leave me to my tears when I'm this way:
It's times like these that make a tear to shed.

(To be continued...)

A/N: The ballade is a fixed French, consisting of three 8-line stanzas and one 4-line envoi, with the last line of each stanza and envoi forming a refrain. The tone and form is similar to that of an ode, though subjects vary greatly.

Meter: Iambic pentameter
Rhyme:

Stanza 1: ababbcbC
Stanza 2: ababbcbC
Stanza 3: ababbcbC
Stanza 4: (Envoi) bcbC