30 Line Orphan Song

Thirty Line Orphan Song

I’m not an orphan

 Though my folks are gone 

Left me with a softness

 In the center, 

Their lilt to a laugh 

 No orphan in that blood

 Still flowing through Veins 

mixing vintages Into a varietal of temperment 

Can’t or won't fake those

 Sometimes you will see them

 Without searching too hard

 A certain tilt of the head 

When lifting up a kid

 Or kneeling in the loose dirt

 Orphans don’t look Like my Mother 

When she explained

 How mistakes are not permanent

 Such a difference for me 

 Love doesn’t always last 

But the bond stays strong 

In these chromosomes 

Things handed down

 We hold like a fledgling

 I’m no orphan

 Not in this album

 Tattooed in my memory 

Cobalt indelible inside

Not an orphan, never