"BE DE HOKEY!"

uncle taps me
on the head
"How are you in there?"

the only one who
could walk into my mind
to see how I was

he'd take my grief
tear it into pieces
scatter it to the wind

then he'd take me
by my hand
"Let's see where the happiness is!"

and always he'd find
where the happiness
was hiding

whether it be
in a wildflower
or a nest of blue eggs

or how he
showed me how
to see the world in words

and wonder always
flew to him
perched upon his shoulder

and oh his lovely laughter
and his catch phrase
"Be the hokey!

*

This was the man who kept me alive when my sister died....he reached inside me and filled me with his wonder of words and his love of the world. Always the same old question: "How are you in there?"  He is the reason that I try to put the world in words. I owe him everything. And so it was wonderful to bring him and his words to the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford and say "See what ya made me?"

And of course he said as he always said or still says in my mind. . ."BE DE HOKEY!"