The Family Tree.

In the topmost shoot, we see, the beauty of new life,

Now other buds will blossom, each child for man and wife

And, as the years progress, the branches onward creep

New shoots and branches thicken, the canopy to keep.

When winds and storms impose their stress and branches feel the rain

Not often do we look below, to see what takes the strain,

But there we find great roots emerge, a trunk both strong and round

Transferring all the buffeting, through great branches to the ground.

So let us now remember, beneath the aging bark

The trace of every Ancestor, for each one made a mark

A ring for every year; Lives permanently enshrined

Effectively preserving, the history of our kind.

No death is insignificant, Ancestors cease to live

And for the Tree of Life, there was nothing more to give

But in the newest bud, the sap to form the leaves

Flows through the older channels, made by people such as these.

George Potter