Different Things

He wasn’t sure, and so he told his dad:
He thought he’d leave his marriage and move on –
His father’s voice was low and rather sad,
When he said, “Son – some things, once lost, are gone.

Now, you don’t need to tell me anymore.
I’ve seen that girl who you have on the side;
And your life’s yours, but I would be a poor
Father, indeed, if I just let this ride –

You seem confused in terminology,
You’re stringing words on which you’ve gotten hung.
So I will set you straight, as best I can:
That girl’s not ‘beautiful’, son – she’s just ‘young’.

See, ‘young’ and ‘beautiful’ are different things;
For cheap new plastic, don’t trade
Golden rings

2015-09-29

(This is what has been happening in my house the last two days. – Owen)

So, yesterday, she went to get her stuff;
He’s there, but still won’t say exactly why
Her outcast love’s been left to starve and die
Nor why all that she’s given’s not enough

To merit explanation from the one
Who said that we would love her all his life;
Who took her, one glad day, to be his wife.
Her night is full of tears, and now, the sun

Will find her waking, yearning for a touch:
Wond’ring how love
So good
Could hurt
So much

Where His Head is At

His family’s angry at him now
For having done what he has done;
But yet I’m sure the way he feels
Is meaningful to him

He knows that somewhere people are
So much in love that passion reigns;
But he has not felt that in years
And it’s a thing he wants

Or feels he needs, I do not know.
But she – she could not give it him.
And so he left her, and their child
To seek the “newness” once again

I understand, but still I think:
To give so much up, without fight —
It might make sense inside his heart
But that will never make it
Right

Tonight’s Truth

Her husband left her, telling her that he
Just couldn’t go on anymore this way;
And so, in shock, still reeling from it, she
And our grandson are with us for a stay

And she – she cannot look me in the eyes,
Afraid that she will break completely down;
And when this fact I did at once surmise,
I backed away – but I am still around –

She fears to let the tears completely go
With her young son so very, very small;
And she her full attention turns to him,
To try to make some sense out of it all

My daughter, oh, I’d rip out my own heart
To ease the pain that’s just about
To start