J. I. Bonner was my Mother’s dad, my grand father. He was a very kindly man and I loved him very much, as did his other grand children. I had him in mind when I wrote this next poem in 1958 or 1959.

Another Lord’s Day by E. V. Pete Hester

Down a piney road,
Toward the old folks home,
a-walking I went that way.
A gray haired man with a twinkle in his eye,
I chanced to meet that day.

I spoke “Good Morn”,
And he replied with a voice shaky but gay,
“And how are you my good young man,
On this another Lord’s Day.”

“But my”, I said, “you’re wrong my friend,
it’s very near mid-week.” “Not I that’s wrong,”
he smilingly said, then sat down by the creek.

Then I sat too, just to be near,
His charming and smiling face.
And he pointed up past the pines,
To where the skies and clouds embrace.

“See the sun there, how it smiles at us,
been that way eighty odd years.
And this creek here, listen how it sings,
Songs you and I can hear.”

“That bird, see him?
A mocking bird for sure.
He’ll go to singing soon. And look there,
In that tree, an old owl waiting for the moon.”

“That squirrel a-sitting, watching us,
that nut he’s about to eat,
and that old red-headed wood pecker ,
is about to have a treat.”

He went on and on, still smiling,
His eyes still bright and gay,
I thought and smiled, he’d made his point,
Tis truly, another Lord’s Day.