Of don Quixote

I don't usually post twice in the same week, but in looking through my journal I found this and it seemed an appropriate follow-up to my last entry.

Dear don Quixote,

little did I know

those many years ago

when reading your story,

I was to follow in your footsteps.

Maybe I did know,

     but didn’t know I knew,

     for thoughts of you

            stayed with me

            as I collected trinkets

            to remind me of you.           

Your little carved wooden statue

     that graced my home

     for many years

     now stands proudly

     on a pillar

     near my daughter’s front door.

I believe, that for her,

     it represents us both

     and perhaps our kinship

            (yours, Don, and mine)

     which she recognized

            even before I did.

Oh noble don Quixote,

     bravely you trumpeted the call

     to return a fallen world

     to the chivalry of old,

            in your heart it truly existed

            —had, and could again—

     as you trudged the miles

            and fought the giants,

     unswayed by on-lookers

     who laughed and called you fool

            for you knew the value

            of what you pursued . . .

Yes, my daughter sees

     shades of me in you

     and you in me,

     so in her love

     she revers that statue

     even while she too 
     laughs at the fool.