Orphan

I imagined when
my parents died
I'd be an orphan.

Kind of like Kipling's
Kim or Huck Finn.
But no luck!

I was always asking
my parents for advice,
though I'm not sure

if I ever took it.
Now they are
gone from the planet

but not from my life.
I think of them often
and see them everywhere.

Unlike Castaneda's Don Juan
who gave up his last name,
and became his own person,

I realize what I am is
the combination of where
I was and where I am going.