My maternal grandfather’s name is Stayton Henry May. He passed away when I was thirty-three.
I wrote the poem from memories from 1963 and 1964. Those years I lived in Seguin, Texas. He lived on the old Pruitt Place between Leesville and Nixon, Texas in Gonzales County.
As a fifth and sixth grader, I spent many weekends and holidays with him during those wonder years. The poem is of memories of fishing with him and when I asked him about Jesus walking on the water. He asked where I heard the story. I told him Sunday school. He then retold me the story saying he first heard it attending church as a boy.
I had a wonderful grandfather.
My Grandfather and Me
We would walk to the stock tank
My grandfather and me
There I learned to bait a hook
In the cool shade of the trees
Sometimes in the little boat
Rowing close to an earthen dam
He would retell of Jesus walking on the water
A story he’d learned in church when just a lad
He would take a dip of Garrett Snuff
Addicted to the nicotine
While I watched my cane pole’s cork float
When it bobbed, I tugged the line, and let out a scream
In my homemade feed sack shirt
Blue jeans rolled up nearly to my knees
He was always in his khakis
A red bandanna used to catch his sneeze
Memories of those early years
Are as fresh as yesterday
Someday we will meet in Glory
Again he will show me the way.
Jimmie A. Kepler
July 2012
