Riding Zebras

Fifty-five short years ago,

Swiss Family Robinson came to town.

The theater filled with vulnerable children,

Seeking adventure from miles around.

We dreamed of losing our families,

Ending up stranded on lost isles…

Fantasizing grandiose tree houses,

Guarded by pet crocodiles.

Parents begged us to come inside,

Since the Disney film at the Ritz…

Our homes were epic battlefields;

Kids were the Robinson’s,  moms the pirates. 

We soon missed dinner with loved ones

After two cold nights in the yard;

No kid got to ride an ostrich;

The castaway’s life, proved way too hard. 

Returning to school and our warm beds,

Our surrender brought heart felt smiles…

Yet I doubt that even one of us,

Purged the dreams of deserted isles.

Dark Waters

I bet you have forgotten the night,

You turned my world black.

The night I lost all faith and trust,

These years have never given back.

That night of betrayal and mutiny,

You left me abandoned, lost at sea…

Flotsam launched by your auditions;

Roles that stole the ship from me.

I treaded dark water for decades,

Hoping I’d see your face once more;

But under the stars in both our lives,

Alone, I found my way to shore.

Nameless

Threadbare clothes and a backpack;

It was one foot in front of the other.

Behind the bushes on the highway;

One dead end found, and then another.

No job, no cash no future,

A desperate world so vast…

He remembers drugs and the trauma,

Forgetting his family and small town past.

He can’t tell you if it was the war,

Or his love for a hard rock band…

Numbing the pain, more than warmth,

Was reason enough to roam the land.

His photo from twenty years ago,

As a cute kid in the fourth grade…

Might alter our condemning opinions,

Before another conviction is made.

Someone used to love him

His parents and high school friends…

What crisis lost those friendships,

Causing his walk that never ends?