I Never Knew Fear

We were younger then, and trim, and fit,
Our jaws were set; we grit our teeth and forged ahead,
And threw away our dreams chasing blue skies and apple pies;
What fools we were back then.

The stars were bright, hell, everything was brighter in our twenties,
Unfiltered by the years, not heavy with the tears of hearts broken;
The wine was sweeter, too, and the music beat right through our chests.

All the while we danced along on winding streets
In the inner city of our youth, handing out flowers like candy,
Or tossing pennies against a curb;
As our mothers called us to “Please come home for supper”,
We marched in lock-step toward the night, unafraid of the blackness,
Or even of the dawn that waited with its wrinkled face staring back at us from our vanities.

What can you do?

Life doesn’t come with a handbook;
We only have our hopes and fears, our dreams just had to wait
Until they grew into nightmares big as life itself,
Then we could no longer ignore them.

I sat on my ------’s death bed
Holding her head against my shoulder as she slowly slipped away.
I kept saying, “It’s all right, sweet baby, I’m right here.”
She nodded, and soon it was done.

I should have gone home more often.