He rides alone on a hill
A horse, a dog and a gun
A thousand sheep scattered below
In the Alberta midday sun
His thoughts; five thousand miles away
With his wife, his daughter, and sons
Alone with his thoughts he writes them down
A diary is begun
He addresses his words to his children
So they might understand
Why he left them behind to make a new life
In the harsh forbidden land
He recalls the days of his childhood
As an apprentice he’d toiled
And the Great War, when he’d been a sailor
When the Mediterranean boiled
He wrote for the love of his children
And Lord, how he missed his good wife
How he saved every nickel to pay their way here
For the chance to start a new life
To save them from the strife and suffering
That had long been the old country’s way
And to bring his loved ones to Canada
And a peaceful and happier day.
Grandfather’s Diary was excerpted from the audio CD, The Smell of Sage and Pine by Mike Puhallo