Embrace

Shouldn’t be surprised that family embrace
transmutes in different ways; once it was a
doubtless surety of who you were and why
we’re bonded in a unity of thought & deed,
if we disagreed it said exactly why or how
our common ground had disappeared

If one traces all the ways we kept in touch
throughout those growing years or paused
in dotage of today it will amaze the sceptic
hidden in the folds of fellowship – easiness
expressed our words the best in births and
deaths but claimed no secret parentage

We’re not the same; need to list a hundred
similarities can equally describe disparities
which do exist, and in this stands a reason
why we are this way, we share a name in
common but as entities still free to chose
to be embraced within a gracious family

We are that family – it claims our heritage
as plain as dark defines the night and light
attests the day; we find delight in sibling
charity and care to keep its torch alight to
guide those few who’re compromised, just
one or two, ‘tho should you be surprised?
© 16 February 2012, I. D. Carswell