Lifting Weights

Devouring time, blunt thou the lion’s paws.
William Shakespeare

I am an Oklahoman.
I became a weightlifter early
          a mover of all things heavy.
With my people
carrying the ballast became second nature. 
          From my youth, 
it seemed my legs and back were built 
to lift a load and bear a burden.
          I grew strong 
like my father, brothers and uncles, 
but no one warned me of weights 
          that would, one day, come.

On the day that I lifted my father 
          fallen
from the inevitable gravity of winter, 
I was not ready for his lightness of being,                   
          the want of any real heft.          
He should have been a massive hulk 
not the mere husk of a man
          not the pale shadow, 
that I lifted from the wooden floor
featherlight as a child.

I discovered, then, that weight 
is not always measured in pounds
          No, the heaviest weight 
is measured in days,
heavier than any steel or stone 
          could ever be.