Toldot/Generations

Toldot is a biblical Hebrew term usually referring to human generations and genealogies. See, for example, Genesis 5:1, 6:5, 10:22, and Numbers 1:20. 

now that I’m old 
and know it 
I begin to glimpse 
the endless line 
of generations 
the wide-eyed babes 
opening up to the whole 
incoming new world 
and the little kids 
so angelic and so loud 
God what a clamor 
and their older brothers 
and sisters 
with the sap coming in 
and the sap asking out 
the first faint gleam 
of a new generation 
and their mothers and fathers 
walking about their business 
some satisfied and some sad 
and then the old 
and the old-old 
like me 
seeking to make the best 
of their remaining time 
and a good death 
one eye still on the banana peel 
and the other on eternity 
while the babes and the kids 
and the youths and the parents 
keep coming on 
endlessly