Author Information
"Winter's Noose"
Last Winter closed with the passing of such beautiful youth
Spring and high school fame right around the corner,
then on some old country highway, sometime past midnight,
deadman's curve collected another bounty,
not the drunk driver, the one who had been at the party all night
but the kid who had just got there because he had to work late.
He threw down a couple from what I hear
and got in the car with his friend for that last ride.
I remember standing in front of a thousand Women, Men, and Children
telling stories, pausing to laugh, to cry, and then reading his poem I wrote
"Josh's Smile"
I finished by telling everyone that it sure didn't seem fair
that Josh was taken away from us so soon
Why Him, why the other night, what did he do so wrong
that God chose Him to come Home in the young innocence of it all?
Then it dawned on me in front of everyone,
the only explanation there could be.
I looked around at all the tears and deep heartaches
and I said
"I reckon God needed An Angel that night
and he sure couldn't have chose a more Beautiful One than Josh"
and that was a Winter past.
This Winter began with pouring rain and devastating winds
a thunderous storm that flooded the foundation of Hope,
destroying a Man on an old country road
in a barren November field now marked with a large cross
filled with signatures of loved ones, forever etched in loving memory
of another good Man gone too soon,
and my Sister still to this day
playing on the edge of sanity, because she misses her Husband so much.
Then there's Me, trying to nurse, prod, do whatever it takes
to get a once proud Father through Winter,
and Hope that Spring will be kind and that maybe he will decide to live again.
Seems like so long ago he was walking tall, yet it's only been months,
could be the two packs a day
maybe it's the whiskey mixed with coffee, or juice, or even milk now,
the starting so early in the morning that I haven't even got my head on straight yet,
all I know is draw the dot from the bad heart and lungs
and you find me at the end of the pen, Angry
and that breaks my heart
Just like he fell and broke his hip yesterday
Damn! Winter is hanging on
Now I find carvings in the bark of an old dead tree
random letters that spell no words
a riddle perhaps?
Certainly not to the author who cruises the highways
with one hand on the steering wheel, the other playing his guitar
Singing, "My My, Miss American Pie"
I'm too old to play games
the ocean is too cold to go surfing,
and this Winter has lasted way too long
There's a very old saying by a very wise one
"Let those without sin cast the first stone"
I won't be throwing stones anytime soon
but Man can I jet a rock!
A confession, I'm getting tired of the Arctic air
it sucks the breath right out of your lungs
and it weighs those rocks down to where you don't even want to pick them up again
Thank God For Love
Someone asked me last night how I would feel if I didn't have that anymore?
The answer to that is simple,
Winter would be Forever
