Jack Dale Troupe

Born of star dust

Return there we must

The when and where is history

The why remains a mystery.

Jack Troupe 1926-2023

In a horse-drawn buggy

The doctor he came

In storm or darkness

It was all the same.

In harmony with

The ubiquitous “why”

In an area as rural as

The name can imply

The doctor's buggy lays by

And soon thereafter

An infant's cry.

The life of a pioneer farmer

Often labor without reprieve

A tutor in life's lessons

Often difficult to achieve.

All in due course

Stages of my life convened

Youthful freedoms, school room duty

Then WWII intervened.

Patrolling the restless Pacific

Especially on storm-tossed seas

Shows how precarious our position

And focuses our priorities.

Once again a civilian

And options are left to me

Dabbling in trades and retailing

Pointed me toward a degree.

Oregon, Madison, Missouri, Middlebury

A blur of campuses ensues

Now I can teach french wherever I choose.

In the halls of Lincoln

As it came to pass

Here was I, a bachelor lad

Crossing paths with a comely lass.

Joanne daily more desirable grew

While Jack pressed his claim

In no time at all, it seems

We shared the same last name.

Five years later

And now we are three

An event long-awaited

The arrival of Jackie Lee.

Our cup runneth over

Joy as if by decree

Now a family of four

As we welcome Jody Lee.

Bottles and bicycles, books without end

Braces and boyfriends, always something new

Proms and graduations

And then we are two.

From kith and kin and special friends

Validation for life we derive

Unmitigated joy and breathless wonder

All part of being alive.

So on to retirement

A concept difficult to grasp

When slow motion rules the day

Yet time keeps whizzing past.

To sum up a lifetime of reflection

An age-old prerogative

While death confers anonymity

It's best done while still cognitive.

Tales that explain why

Offer comforts undeniable

In the quest for truth

Probably not as reliable.

In other words, after the law of physics, everything else is opinion.

     -Neil de Grasse Tyson 1958

Whether you subscribe to parsing ancient scripts

Or invest in the charming world of quarks

There is scant room to be dogmatic

Neither sea is teeming with Arks.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

      -Voltaire 1694-1778

With genetic codes an open book

And hovering on the cusp of singularity

Would that the quality of restraint

Henceforth, not be a rarity. 

The most incomprehensible thing about the world

is that it is comprehensible.

     -Einstein 1879-1955

When the world is too much with us

And our own universe is flying apart

Be mindful that control is not a given

And yielding can be an art. 

Stone walls do not a prison make,

nor iron bars a cage

Minds innocent and quiet take

that for a hermitage.

     -Richard Lovelace 1618-1658

Dark energy and dark matter

Enigma dernier cri

Are they the key

To all this mystery?

I have thrilled to the ride

I have probed “the why”

But time and telomeres will have their way

And that's my cue to say goodbye.