Mary Lou

I banished every picture

That Daddy had of you

A razor knife silhouette

Remains on just a few.

For your image these days only

Incites anger and bitter hate

We can not stand the sight of you

And for Karma, we all wait.

I built a fire in the yard

To cast you down into

You’re the epitome of evil

God has seen what you do.

I criticize myself

For being blind for so long

We pray you have a painful death

We will all be happy when you’re gone.

I wish that I could witness

The shock upon your face

When Peter quite explicitly

Points out your fall from Grace.

I hope the sins of this mother

Fall on your children too

For they are just as guilty

And just as greedy as you.

I pray your cold heart

Disintegrates like sand

When the Lord removes you from the book

With his very own hand.

And as you go falling

Into the fiery pits of hell

We’ll all be singing hallelujah

And rejoicing as well

Father’s Day

Daddy was my confidant

The first to hold my hand

The strong shoulder I leaned upon

My daily a.m.

We planted things together

Stood back to watch them grow

He said I was his sunshine

He’ll always be my HERO,

He gave me a moral compass

Told me to be a guiding light

He taught the definition of integrity

And standing up for what is right.

He gave me my first engraved pen

Leather bound notebooks too

He said it’s just like praying

When you write it out of you.

He held me on his shoulders

So I could see the world

I traveled miles on his boot clad leg

So happy to be his little girl.

When the Parkinson’s came

It was my turn to hold

Those shaking hands

That somehow got old.

It was now my turn

To guide the way

To show him I loved him

Each and every day.

We went on adventures

To his childhood home

We’d sit and I’d listen

About the life he’d known.

Lord thank you for the laughter

That we shared everyday

He called me by name

Till he went away.

I’d sat with him

The day before

Holding tight to his hands

I sat on the floor.

We both dozed off

And I awoke to find

His tear filled eyes

Staring into mine.

He whispered

“Don’t worry, we’ll be alright”

I responded with

“Daddy, I’ll catch you, on the flip side.”

The  very next day

With all gathered round

When his pulse had ceased

And no heartbeat was found.

I held tight to his fists

And kissed his cheek

Then repeated the words

He’d said to me.

“Don’t worry Daddy we’ll be alright”

And at that moment

GOD vanquished his light.

I rejoiced with my Dad

When he was pulled from that room

Whispering “I’ll catch you on the flip side,

I’ll be seeing you soon.”

So my first year without him

This Father’s Day

I recall only the love

And how we’d say

“You are my HERO”

To this little girl

“You are my Sunshine”

You are my world ♥️♥️♥️

Happiness

“What are you most afraid of?”

I’ve been asked so many times

Showing vulnerability

Was always foremost in my mind.

I learned to view it as a weakness

For it could be ransomed over me

I grew to hide it very well

And not let anybody see.

Lest they use this fear against me

Take all my secrets and depart

Carrying it like loose change , you see

And not safely in their heart.

Then one day it occurred to me

During a moment of pure bliss

It was never vulnerability I feared

But what came with it, happiness.

For when I’m truly happy

When my soul begins to shine

That’s when life will steal from me

What I was never meant to find.

They say happiness is fleeting

And I declare this is so

It’s a momentary embrace

I’ll never really get to know.

The way it wraps around you

Like a sheltered cocoon

And just when I believe in it

It’s taken away to soon.

That feeling of joy

That puts a bounce in my step

Always makes me stumble

When the reality sets

In to remind me

Happiness is brief

Just give it a second

And it will leave.

So now when they ask me

“What is it I fear”

I whisper “being happy”

So quietly, they can not hear.

Safeguard

Hold tightly to yourself

Don’t give you away

Safeguard your emotions

And everything you want to say.

As you are walking down your path

Spread your arms out wide

Ensure you stay your course

Don’t let anyone inside

Keep your secrets locked up

There’s no need to expose

Anything that makes you vulnerable

Nobody needs to know

Think twice before speaking

You know you can not trust

Anyone with your truths

Choke on them if you must

Don’t reach for a hand

That you thought would be there

As you are falling

You’ll be grasping thin air.

Don’t forget to wear your smile

Fake though it might be

That is your brave face

What everyone expects to see.

Ask “how are you doing?”

And when they respond in kind

Always laugh a little

When you say “I’m just fine.”

That is how you do it

Safeguarding yourself you see

More important than “I love you’s”

Is “I trusted you with me!”

Just a Weekend

Maybe for a weekend

I should just let go

Give myself a moment

To spiral out of control.

All those things we talked about

I still want to do

Only difference going forward

It just won’t be with you.

I can hop onto a train

Go somewhere I’m not known

I could walk into most any bar

And take a stranger home.

I could play it all

The fantasies I have

For just a weekend

Cater to my side of bad.

The good girl gone wild

When the daylight fades

Somewhere far away

Where they don’t know my name.

But unfortunately that

Will never come to be

Unless there’s a connection

It’s hands off you see

Without a Past

I wish I’d never told you

That I hadn’t let you see

All the different layers

That made me…me.

You’ve got no right  in knowing

Who I am at 2am

I want my secrets back now

I pray and say Amen.

I feel parts of me are lost

Puzzle pieces that can’t be found

You were putting me together

Then you turned me upside down.

Every time you said you loved me

I believed it more and more

I put all my faith in you

And you walked right out the door.

True love doesn’t do that

It watches your back

Stays the course through it all

Preventing attacks

Shame on you For opening me

Then not sticking around

Leaving me in this dismal place

I hope I’m never found.

You’re the worst of the worst

For doing this to me

Never again will I show

My vulnerability.

You were the one

That was going to prove me wrong

On lessons I had learned of love

Seems I was right all along.

You took the cowards way out

Made me adore you and then

When I trusted you with me

You dropped me in the end.

So everything you held against me

Look closely at them now

You did the exact same thing

Maybe now you’ll figure out

My hesitations were on love

They never were on you

You proved me right on everything

That I already knew.

True love is just a myth

Commitment only lasts

If you fit into their box

And come without a past.

I Love You

People throw around “I love you’s”

Like they’re picked fresh from a tree

And yet they stop to wonder why

It’s seldom said by me.

They trade it like its a commodity

Use it up, then go get more

Doesn’t matter if it’s fresh or not

Or slightly bruised before.

I used to wait at that same tree

Only to give away what I had gathered

And others took it happily

My efforts never mattered

When the tree was finally barren

All of its fruits picked clean

I picked up what had fallen

And it was toxic to me.

The rancid taste of love

Was the bitterest of pie

So the words “I love you”

Seem to be the biggest lie.

For the pits will leave you choking

Swallowing your own blood

The hardest part in letting go, the primary reason that you just can’t get past it, is the lack of understanding what happened.

The inability to make it make sense.

You’ve reviewed it a hundred times.

And it plays on repeat over and over again.

Still, it doesn’t make sense.

You can’t add it up.

You think if you delete the pictures, the texts, that voicemail, it’ll make it easier to complete the process. But you can’t.

After all, that’s all you have left.

It’s almost impossible to fathom how, for one that never plans beyond next week, you let someone become your world. Then watched helplessly as that world collapsed.

Now, you only focus on tomorrow.

And damn, that pain, that’s the kind of pain that’s going to leave you angry for a very long time. Anger is so much easier to hold onto than sorrow.

Now you sit there in the quiet, refusing to allow the images you treasured, take up space in your head as you drift off to sleep.

Once again cocooned in your pillows.

In the morning you remember, the lessons learned from letting people in and how this one got in deeper and only drove those lessons home.

You keep telling yourself that you knew better. Haven’t the last three years given you enough realizations to know that absolute faith is non existent?