A Toast

I raise a toast to the man who bent the impossible to his own will;

I give a standing ovation to him who threw himself into shaping me;

I declare you a father of fathers and hoist your fame on a plinth;

I raise my glass to all you stood for; ideals taught me from the crib.

Talons of time cannot claw the memory of you off my mind.

And since you did not quit on me I return the favor in kind.

If I live four score and seven years I’ll give each moment in time

To celebrate a gift that was the sum total of divine and sublime.

Akpan