We rode up to the canyon Algoma Central Rail.
We got up very early, before the dawn had pailed.
My father and my mother, both now near seventy,
And I, in my mid-forties, had travelled far to be
Together in this canyon, first time in twenty years.
Time has a way of stilling their worries and my fears.
My brother and my sister, both married and with kids,
Had found a way to please them and pick up on their bids.
But I had very early discovered I was gay.
It wasn't very easy to find my single way.
Of course, I could have married, or given it a try,
But both my folks had told me how wrong it was to lie.
Son in my early twenties I set out on my own,
And though not always lonely, I've always been alone
We got off in that canyon—Agawa, it is called—
And there we shared the beauty of its steep and tree-lined walls.
We savored crystal waters and those slopes of evergreen.
As with other sons and daughters, there were things that went unseen.
My father climbed 300 steps the lookout point to see,
And though his boldness worried me, I chose with him to be.
It wasn't always so, I thought, for in my younger days
I found myself attracted more to mother's thoughts and ways.
I risked and told my father how he had frightened me,
But, he replied, "There's other things, you know, like jealousy."
I pondered what my dad had said the next day on the train,
I searched the bottom of my soul and riffled through my brain.
I couldn't find a single shred of jealousy for him.
Though in the process I discovered memories just as grim.
We rode down from the canyon, and somehow things had changed:
My feelings better sorted out, my thoughts more rearranged.
Our lives are like a train ride, my parents' lives and mine.
There's more than we can fathom as we move along the line.
We all are seeking beauty, yet we see it differently—
One finds it in a flower, another in a tree.
We should not tell each other what beauty we should find.
It isn't in the things we see, you see, it's in our minds.
It isn't so important, then, the cards that fate has dealt,
The thoughts that we've been thinking, or the feelings we have felt.
Important is the fact that we have had the chance to share,
To take the ride together, to listen, learn, and care.
And so I love my parents as our journey nears its end
For I know the truth is waiting, and it's just around the bend.