Construct Cup V 2.0

Eulogy for an Old Man

Prompt for: June 1, 2014
Subject or Theme: Personal & Historical Event (something from recent public history that effected you)
Word(s) to Include: blame, morning 
Forbidden Word(s): grief, happy, history, remember, sad, think, thought, tragedy, tragic (or any derivatives of these words)
Additional Parameters: minimum 24 lines of free verse. Remember, do not use words ANYWHERE, including title.

Old, odd man perched above the

notch. Steadfast as granite was he:

with flinty-eye visage, stoic forehead

and stubborn chin. Wrinkles marbled his

skin, etchings of time

and wear and age.

He weathered well,

most everybody said.

Seeing him meant I was almost

home. He'd stare out over the Notch,

his never wavering gaze seeking, searching to the

east. Just always there: faithful, patient, enduring.

Made of that rock-solid substance

that flows through the veins of all

who call New Hampshire home.

He collapsed that morning, or

perhaps

the night

before,

unheard,

unseen. There was nothing

anyone could do, no one to blame

for his fall. He was there; then he

was not. He was quarter-ed and

drawn. His was the face of a

people, a state of mind where

there is no acceptable

alternative to living free.

Daniel Webster once said: "Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoemakers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."

http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/Old-Man-of-the-Mountain-collapse-anniversary/19...