Where Credit is Due > Joni Mitchell

There are trails around the world and life,

That traverse a perilous ledge…

One misstep means certain death;

Tumbling over the edge.

The cliff side paths, a metaphor,

At times for my daily life…

One step and then another,

On the blade of a razor sharp knife.

We seek out holds and bannisters,

To protect us from slips and fails…

Joni for half a century,

Furnished my life with safety rails. 

Often when betrayed or beaten,

Her lyrics, verbatim, I’d recall…

There was never a crisis prevented,

Yet her albums softened the fall.

Bill

The young boy teased the kitten,

With a ribbon on a string…

Taunted himself by kids in the park,

He swung the highest in the swing.

He earned in high school, an Eagle Badge

And a place on the Honor Roll…

The frat house king in college,

He was the “Adonis with a soul”.

World War ll beckoned Bill,

A Navy pilot, he flew jet planes…

Creating a wonderful family

In the post-war world’s remains.

His children played with kittens

With ribbons on a string…

Growing through the decades,

Excelling at everything.

The pendulum counting his fortunes,

Began to reverse his fate…

The children moved and his wife died,

Bill lost awareness of the date.

Startled from his perpetual nap,

He yelled, “Are the planes overhead”?

I whispered, “The war is over”. 

“Thank God”, was all he said.

Now fading in the retirement home,

His grip loosens on the wheel chair…

They discuss moving him across the street,

To be almost, no longer there.