Debra

The world may hold other pretty faces

With fiery red hair crowning genius poll

They can come from different countries and races

But they will all pale in the light of your soul

 

Their splendor is shadowed when in your light

Their essence becomes tarnished and rusted

Because your elegance always shines bright

And It’s for your love that I’ve always lusted

 

Your grandeur comes from deep within your heart

While their beauty barely scratches their surface

Your love and mine cannot be torn apart

I often wonder what I did to deserve it

 

You took a broken child riddled with fear

Your Love enveloped me and made me whole

So even now, in these frail fading years

I still Love you more than you’ll ever know

That Red-Haired Girl

Every person’s destiny is created by a single point in time and we are forever tied to that event. That moment when the world starts to make sense and the pages in the book of our life, unfolds to reveal a glimpse of what will become our destiny.  Every decision we make and every action we take for the rest of our lives, will always bring us back to that exact moment. For me, October 7th, 1972 at 8:16AM was that moment.

You walked directly toward me, emerging from the early morning fog like a mystical goddess passing through the veil between heaven and earth. As I watched you float down the gravel road my heart tried desperately to escape my chest and join you; longing to intertwine with your soul. Blood rushed through my body until my head became light and my vision began to fade. I had to look away or fall to the ground.

It was that instance that marked the beginning of the end of my innocents. I knew in that moment, I would have to forfeit my youthful ways and learn to deal with the raging hormones of puberty. I understood that time and nature would force me to relinquish my body to the sometimes exciting, but usually frightening, world of a teenager. Although at the time I could not tell you so… I knew that moment marked the beginning of the rest of my life. Oh how I have love that life.

The Past

I’m not quite sure why I’m so obsessed with the past. After all, If I remember correctly, I wasn’t that fond of it at the time.

Bad Kids

My friend wasn’t a bad kid

Bad kids stole money from their mom’s purse

Bad kids did hard drugs

Bad kids had unprotected sex

Bad kids always got into fights

Boys will be boys, my friend said

His son only smoked a little grass

He only painted a little graffiti

He only drank a little beer

On his way home from a party

He only crossed the white line a little bit

But his girlfriend is more than a little dead

Because he wasn’t a bad kid

 

Hey Dumb Ass

Damn…

All of a sudden I’m old. I swear that when I went to bed last night I was young. I could run and jump, play ball with the kids, eat ice cream, drink beer, stay out all night and still make it to work the next morning with a smile on my face. But when I woke up this morning, it was a struggle to find my glasses before I could see good enough to even find my way to the bathroom to retrieve my teeth from the glass on the sink.

My mind tells me that I can still do all those things that I always just took for granted. But, I guess all my sweet moves on the field of play might have soured a bit. I probably should have known something was going on when they started asking me be the scorekeeper instead of a player. But, in my stubborn refusal to age, I did not pay attention ‘to everyone who ever knew me’ and attempted to join in on their reindeer games anyway. It only took a few minutes before my body parts looked at me in shame and decided to rebel.

Hey stupid ass…you want to quit that now. Cease and desist immediately or we’ll make you pay. And no amount of ibuprofen is going to fix it either.

But I did learn a valuable lesson. Whoever it was that said ‘No pain, no gain’ was younger than 30.