Strangers Who Broke My Heart

John and Bobby Kennedy,

Took away my innocence.

Then Martin Luther King…

Another loss that made no sense.

Years later a Life cover,

Had Kermit in a director’s chair…

Orphaned and so alone,

Jim Henson was no longer there.

Eddie Rabbit and Jim Croce,

Wove our routines into a tune.

They celebrated our daily life,

Then both, gone all too soon. 

I miss the Carter Family,

June Carter and Mr. Cash…

George Straight and Tammy Wynette,

While I ate my grits and hash. 

Jim Varney, cut down in his prime;

His career from mach speed to zero.

Hey Ernest, it’s me and Vern…

You the buffoon, then always our hero.

Nancy Wilson was the artist,

Who sang perfectly off key…

Owning my soul for forty years,

While setting my spirit free.

Merle Haggard, an ass in real life,

Really hit those lower notes…

While showing off his softer side,

Those few lyrics won my votes.

Lastly, there was Leonard Cohen,

His words emboldened and elated…

I will never forget his legacy’s path,

Yet I am no less devastated.

I’ve yet to name my greatest loss;

I can’t measure the grief or how…

Now older myself, we’re equals ,

We’re here, at both sides now.

Black Out Drunk (Fiction)

Tonight, I drank to oblivion

Where nothing is as it seems…

I realized when I sobered up

I pissed away my dreams.

Most men my age have given up,

Believing now, our dreams are dead…

My dreams apparently remained alive,

Soaking the entire double bed.

Stones

My parents gave my dog away

We moved to another town…

Again, a stranger in a new school,

Another year of feeling down.

Civil rights exploded,

Past decades apparently lied;

Then the 60’s music heroes

Overdosed and suddenly died.

Political assassinations…

The morality society lacked,

Burdened us with immoral stones

Threatening to break our backs.

We finished or dropped out of school,

Still moving ahead, mentally numb;

Visiting now in our sixties we ask,

Was any truth ever under our thumb?