<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div dir="auto"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.3em; font-size: 19.059999px;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Origins and Longevity</font></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 80px; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 14px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 20px;">for Ken</font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I don’t know where my father’s gone<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">no one can really tell<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">with his thick hands and shoulders<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">his cramped-up legs<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">his way with horses<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">his laughter and scorn<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">the wide brow with its hatchet scar<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">fallen from the top of a step-ladder<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">just before I was born.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Before that I was smaller<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">than the black gnat<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">running over this page<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">with its wings and nerves<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">its spindly antenna<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">picking up messages<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">from the grass<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">that grows near the musty grave.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">I was smaller than a grain<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">and didn’t feel the pain<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">and I sang and drifted,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">drifted and sang</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">and later lived like a honeybee<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">buzzing to work in the mind of the hive,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">it took thousands of us to make a thought<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">with no child left behind.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Now my friend speaks of turmeric<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">the gold spice cooked into curry and rice<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">which helps to prevent dementia,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">which can sometimes make you forget to eat<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">and forget the name of your wife.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">He says flossing the teeth can help as well<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">to keep inflammation away from the brain —<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">and each day he takes a turmeric pill<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">on the way down to work in the morning<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">traveling the winding road back to heaven<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">breathing its peppery smell.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"> - Joseph Millar</font></p><div dir="ltr"><!-- signature open --><div><br></div><div><br></div><!-- signature close --></div></div></div></div></body></html>