A Life Without Stories Poem by Jim Yerman

"Have I ever told you the story? " I begin and immediately hear my family's collective sigh…
"About the time I was accidentally shot by an arrow…
and it almost hit my eye? "

Before I finish this question my children and grandchildren collapse in frustration to the floor.
It seems they've heard me tell this story…
a million times before.

And as proof this is a story they have heard…
and heard…
and heard…
they finish the rest of the story with me…
complete with gestures…
word for word.

We have many stories like this one…
stories where the present meets the past.
stories that bind us as a family…
stories that will last…
and last…
and last…

Stories repeated over and over again…
so when any of us is gone
those left behind can sit and smile…
as that memory lives on.

For without these memories of friends and family…
life's recollections large and small…
without these stories oft repeated…
there would be no life at all.