Scatter at Turkey Mountain
a poem for Felix about his Unk

Felix, you just missed him
There's no message to relay
Your Unk didn't intend on being away long
He was going to pick up where he left off
Grab his banjo and play you a Weezer medley
Let you in on his retirement plan aboard a Russian submarine
Choreograph a dinosaur fight with cheese wax and pipe cleaners
Your Unk’s plans were thwarted
All odds were victorious
And you my boy are down one paramount role model

He was just here a minute ago
Jumping on rocks with feet like an ape
If only his influence could play out directly
Then you boys could go carve out your own world
Between the third floor and the hoof of a Trojan horse
Would have been better for him to tell you his tale
Rather than hear it second-hand
by those of us who didn't live it
Think it or feel it like only your Unk could

As part of every cosmic coincidence that brought you here
Every rock kicked to make each ripple that made you
Your Unk is woven into this sequence
And as you tip over the container
Unaware of its contents
His ashes billow like a rim lit cloud obscuring the moon
Darkening the sea below
Where two ships sail by each other
Only to hear after the fact how close they came

We’ll summit Turkey Mountain another time
A place so sacred to your Unk
We’ll tell you again about how awesome he was
And how awesome you would have been together

  - Alexander Maxwell