Travels with Me (2nd of the Beach Trilogy)

My grandfather travels with me

I never knew him

He died when I was 3

But he lived long enough to see me

He wanted to come to the beach with me

To see the open water

A water that could be sailed

Across the oceans to other continents

He had been across the Atlantic

Way back in 1917

To France

To the Great War

But I sensed that he wanted to see the open waters

In peace time, in a less tragic time

So I brought him

And we gazed upon the serenity of the early morning light

He was born in the century before I lived

And died in the century that I was born in

I never knew him

Only some faded photographs

He died at 66

I had only begun to discover him

When I was 68

There are only clues, tantalizing but not tasting 

A photograph from Purdue taken in 1914

A tax receipt from Salem, Ill from 1935

The crest from his officer’s hat

Tarnished by 100 years of neglect but polished after 102 years

I carry it with me

It has a place on the wall

Next to his Victory Ribbon

But, for now, I need to keep it with me

I need him to travel with me

And he needs to travel

Alongside of me

Always in my heart