FOR FATHER'S DAY: Blood and flowers (06/17/01)

FOR FATHER'S DAY

Blood and flowers

by Andrey Sahajdakowski

Fresh flowers stand inches away from the dried blood that remains on the spot where only days earlier your broken and battered body found its final resting place.
How I pray for rain.
Rain to wash away the blood and let it soak into the ground.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

I knew you were gone the night I looked upon your swollen, discolored, barely recognizable face.
I knew you were long gone before I leaned over and kissed your blood-stained cheek and said good-bye.
I knew the angels came for you in that instant before the car came into contact with your fragile body.
The body was yours, but you were gone.
And I know you didn't suffer -
I'm sure the angels saw to that

You're home now and at peace.
Your everyday toils and sufferings are no more,
And I rest in the knowledge that you are happy about that.
You lived a long life that ended so suddenly,
And we both know that this is how it was supposed to be.
The Symphony that is life always comes to an end.
No one escapes it.
No one

Life for us goes on as it must
But the pain of this heartache is great.
Time will do its best to heal the wounds
But the emptiness will probably never go away

You told me that a time like this was sure to come
And that when it did I shouldn't cry or grieve
Because this is the way of all life

And as much as I thought I had myself braced,
The fall was hard.
Very hard

The tears.
The agonizing tears came.
I couldn't hold them off,
There was no point in even trying.
They won't bring you back,
That much even I know.
But your love and your memory can never be taken away from me.
They are all mine.
Mine for ever and ever

You were my father,
This is true.
But you were so much more

You were my friend -
Always there for me.
You were my co-worker -
What a time we had.
You were my travel companion -
Adventures I'll never forget.
You were my walking buddy -
A twosome we laughingly knew as "the old man and the freak."
You were my cheering section -
Always urging me on in ways to better myself.
You were my teacher -
One who taught me many things,
The greatest of which was love.
But most of all
You were my hero

I had often said that if I could be half the mechinist that you were,
I'd be happy.
But now I say:
If I could only attain one small iota of the man
you were, I don't think that I could possibly ask for more.
You're gone but in many ways you can never leave

The flowers have all dried up and the rain that I had so prayed for has finally come and washed the blood away

Life goes on as life must go on

My love to you eternally, my dear father.
My love to you eternally

In memory of Igor Sahajdakowski Sr., July 29, 1922 - February 17, 2001.

This poem was written by his son Andrey and submitted for publication by Olha Oseredczuk, secretary of Ukrainian National Association Branch 37, of which the Sahajdakowskis are members. She explained in her letter that the elder Mr. Sahajdakowski had died earlier this year as a result of a tragic accident in which he was hit by a car as he was crossing the street in Cranford, N.J. This poem, she noted, would be a fitting Father's Day tribute.

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