My grandpa is in a rocking chair
in the living room
He slowly moves back and forth
His eyelids are closed
He listens to the talk around him
but he doesn't take part
Instead he dozes off
his head drooping to his chest
His swaying ceases
His breathing slows

The house he sits in has been his own
for the past fifty years
He raised seven children under its roof
He added an addition for each new child
first another bedroom
then the family room
out in back the garage
Until the house became a home
made of love and sweat

Around Pop
the conversation drifts
to a grandson who just got a job
working behind a desk
for an insurance company
making sixty-five thousand per year

Pop never made that much money
A coal miner's son
who earned his degree
taking classes whenever he could
A salesman by day
and a teacher by night
He had a hard life
but you won't hear that from him

His grandson may think
that he must have been dumb
to work so long and hard
for so little reward
But what he doesn't understand
is that my Pop
sitting in his rocker
in front of the brick fireplace
that he built one stone at a time
achieved more in his lifetime
through hard work
and sweat
than my cousin ever will
by wearing a suit to work
sitting behind a desk
and typing on a computer