Genes. From latin root,
genesis. Meaning: to create.

*

Strange then to speak of legacy:
what's left
beyond ashes, your charred porous bones we picked
over; scavenging after the fire.

Nothing to do now but wait
for nostalgia to breathe
its rose pink mist; love
in retrospect cancels the human, leaves
the ideal.

Meanwhile I bite your feeding hand.
Already before death
your growing irrelevance.
Beyond image of frail old cardiganed you,

in the cane chair
in the northeast corner
of a sun-shone garden, memory.