Edelweiss for My Father - a Poem for Day Twenty of PAD

Here is the prompt for day twenty of the April PAD Challenge:

For today’s prompt, write a task poem. The task can be some glorious duty, or it can be a seemingly small and insignificant job. Or the poem can take someone to task. It’s your task to figure it out and write it.

You Live on the Mountainside Now

Edelweiss for My Father

As a child I believed you
embodied life everlasting.
But, it wasn’t true.
Your death left me
stranded, so now my task
is to unearth you,
bask in your presence
just once more. Yet,
how can I? You survive now
only on remote mountainsides
where lovers die
to get a glimpse
of your double-star formation.
Last I saw you
was the wee hours
of early September
when I snuck away
from base camp—discovered
your blooms near the end,
disinterred you, stole away
with your white, woolly petals
that I later placed inside
my bedside table alongside angel
cards and the fragile pages
of an antique bible.
Your grin has become
2-D, but the way you lifted
one side of your lip
still thrives
in my memory,
and the smell of edelweiss
envelops me in a sadness
that is life everlasting. 

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