My father was an orphan,
And so I was an orphan;
My father never knew his fathers name,
And so I never knew my fathers name.

My father lost his mother young,
And I also lost my mother young;
My life followed every curve of his,
And I could imagine, his battle to live.

His childhood was diffused in me,
Percolating down, his song of being-
But cells talk to cells, closer than breath,
And life learns life- in spite of death.

******************************************

I was adopted at three days of age,
by my parents, who knew my birth mother,
and it was an arranged adoption- sort of
like an arranged marriage; and I consider
myself quite lucky how it all worked out.

Patti Masterman

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-father-was-an-orphan/