Letter of Compromise

My father’s father
I think he was a spy

Mere speculation

I never knew him

He lived in a time
When fedoras
Were common in the luggage racks

He knew the director of the FBI
Helped in the war effort
Traveled the world

He wrote about marriage
To his sons

Formally typed
In September 1963

Chauvinistic
And practical

Marry a girl of “breeding”
But not for money

Sex is not the be-all
Marriage is a continual compromise

He admired Hazel Stanberry of San Francisco
Whose husband was a pessimist
But she kept an unperturbed disposition