TALE-TELL (Tell a Tale)

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I think we all know the scene of the locomotive pulled train and the hissing

When it’s pulling into the station

Ripping through the thick white fog as arrives on the platform

Waiting impatiently to roar into the distance,

And if not from personal recollection, perhaps from a film, or a cartoon

Let’s induce us with this vision, sit and be still for a moment,

Watching it roll in.

The train stops in a little village, the fresh snow is still covering the ground though it has warmed up

I hold my grandfather’s hand as he lifts me into the cabin, and follows

We choose seats in the second suite and sit by the window, so we can see the countryside that will roll by, seated across from one another

The long planes of freshly grown grass are starting to move and become one single lime green line

I wait patiently until my grandfather puts his crossword puzzle down, always filing it out in pen, realizing just the right moment to inject a story

My ears, if they could, would perk up as if a dog is listening to the sound of the wild.

The moving train car is the perfect place to conduct a “tale-tell”

And if you knew my grandfather, it unfolds effortlessly, like melted butter onto a toast

By now I have forgotten how nervous I was at first boarding the train,

Now only paying attention to the deep steady voice that’s leading me into far away lands

Into a place where its people invented paper,

I sit on the edges of the pyramids, breathless,

I am seeing Cairo through my grandfather’s eyes

Effortlessly in love with life, and all it takes is a “tale-tell”

The words unroll as if a film was shown on a big bright wall in front of me

My grandfather, with each pause, touching his beard, as if the rest of the story,

Was embedded between the hair strands, and with each touch more of it was released.

Secret tale drawers he must possess, in there I think,

Another touch, another magnificent unveiling of a detail,

Which brings me closer to invading reality

Of the land in mention,

When suddenly, the door of the car opens, and

The brisk air punches you in the face, almost alarmingly when you open the door and are greeted with white plains everywhere.

During this Holiday Season and every other time of the year

 May you also tell or hear a tale,

To or from a friend, to a loved one, to your family

Perhaps sitting around a fire pit, tell a tale.

Let the magic unfold, and never disappear.

It’s the season of the tale-tell.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2013