Skip to main content

Jimmy

he was just a simple Hoosier
growing up amid the cornfields
where everything made sense
he loved the family cats and dogs
in one picture he's looking down
at his sweet dog
while the others, unsmiling
face the camera
he would play ball all day sometimes
Uncle Boob gave him his first fishing pole
he'd sometimes leave a line floating
while he went to church
later he would discover golf
read the whole Bible
he didn't miss the snow when
they came to Florida
his life was simple
a room full of books
job on the golf course
people lived and died there
for the love of their game
two weeks vacation
every year
when he'd do another
golf and fish adventure
then I came along
never the woman he deserved
watched his mom
wished I could be like her
beauty and kindness personified
she did her duty to God
her mind was to leave us
before her body
as it would be
with her son
never perfect
but so full of love
never to die
in the middle of
his golfing peak
he noticed something
drifting away
easy to shrug off
for so long
until the reality came
crashing down
I wouldn't accept it
he needed to do things for me
he couldn't do this to me
he needed to protect me
until these words
rang false
ridiculous
selfish
it was up to me
I went searching
for truth
security
family
from one coast
to the other
only to come full circle
and realize what
I had to do
let go
just be
just work
just love
just struggle
be joyful
cry like hell
hug my boys to me
who taught me
what love is
what family is
Jimmy
I still see
even as my tears fall
that superstar Little Leaguer
that guy who sunk
holes-in-one like it was no thing
the guy who goofed on
his honkey-tonk friends
the guy who always
guided my two left feet
through the line dances
the guy who refused to
let me give up
while others just saw
some redneck
who wasn't good enough
they weren't worth your toenail
that looks like a dragon's talon
I haven't forgotten
I hope one day
to be worthy of you...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 22 - Beck Diet Solution, Say “Oh Well” To Disappointment

Inigo Montoya: Who are you? Man in Black: No one of consequence. Inigo Montoya: I must know... Man in Black: Get used  to disappointment. Inigo Montoya: 'kay. The Princess Bride (20th Century Fox 1987) Just as Inigo shrugs off the disappointment of the Man in Black’s declining to reveal his identity and gets right back into the duel, so too must we shrug off those discouragements that go hand-in-hand with losing weight and keep truckin’ down the weight loss trail.   It’ll go easier for us if we do.  What if we just lay around bellyaching about how horrible it is that we can’t have that donut, can’t eat/drink exactly what everybody else does at parties, can’t just open the fridge and eat whenever we felt like it?  How much would we really accomplish that way?  Even if we do stick to our plans for a little while under that mindset, we’d be fighting an exhausting battle with ourselves every day and eventually give in.  Even the patience and resolve of saints would

Hayride at Jersey Farm

The beginning of the first fall we have seen in four years. This time of year also makes me think of Joni Mitchell's song, "Urge for Going": I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down When the sun turns traitor cold And all trees are shivering in a naked row I get the urge for going but I never seem to go I get the urge for going When the meadow grass is turning brown Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in I had me a man in summertime He had summer-colored skin And not another girl in town My darling's heart could win But when the leaves fell on the ground And bully winds came around pushed them face down in the snow He got the urge for going and I had to let him go He got the urge for going When the meadow grass was turning brown And summertime was falling down and winter was closing in Now the warriors of winter they gave a cold triumphant shout And all that s