Heart of Pine

Senior Giuseppe's pain is grand. His neighbors see him exiting his little house every day, draped inside his dark coat, they watch him as he takes tombstone hill on heavy tread.

His little boy crossed the road chasing the ball. Didn't look left or right. Didn't hear the stampeding horse. A heavy carriage and a cruel wheel crushed the child in two.

The doctors said there was nothing they could do for his poor kid.

They see him walking for the graves and wave to him in sympathy. Courage, Geppetto, they think in their heads.

It is carved on the frozen gravestone. "Pinocchio" it spells.

He shed black tears begging the blue fairy.

"A gift is never returned," she answered.

"If he was made of wood, I could have saved him," he keeps reminding himself bitterly.

Still, just recently... his step has a lighter hop. A little pine tree is growing on tombstone hill.