Family Album

A young girl and her sisters lie in fresh cut hay,
A handsome soldier stands before the barn,
A young boy stretches up to grasp his mothers arm,
A daughter and her daughter smiling greet the break of day.

These fragments of a life may frame the tale,
But writ across them runs a second text.
Traditions acted out before the flaming range,
Cross generations through the female line.
The rules of duty, service, purpose and enduring faith
Sound out the slow and steady rhythms of her life
And bind the past and future into one.