For Zac, My Younger Son and Youngest Child 

My memory of you when a boy I did teach,
of a human being I pray I helped you become.
Let your life reflect the divine spark in each
when the banality of others does us benumb.

Teary-eyed sighs on cloudy days recall,
a boy's freckled face crestfallen became ...
for plucking orange lilies off sun craning stems,
whose countenance shone neither remorse nor shame.

A lesson he'll recall from that day hence …
may many more days be his to see,
Respect all life from great to small, guard this lesson's value pristine,
Tend your garden until like a school it becomes
so tomorrow's children will have lilies seen.

Alan D. Busch
8/5/09