Miracle On 44th Street

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Miracles happen in the strangest ways...

Lyrical On 44th Street
 

The argument started at the table
 
He was too soft,
 too timid to quote Gable
 
She said ,"Your dreams aren't keeping the lights on.
 
If I see you writing again, your son and I will be gone."
 
 
 
 
He said, "I been writing this book for ten years.
 
 I  got a letter from the mayor. I won a certificate."
 
She said, "It's just paper. We can't eat it. It aint worth ****!
 
   For six years you haven't been a father at all.
 
You got a son who can't even catch a damn ball.
 
You're worth a nickel as a husband.
 
As a father, not even a dime.
 
Where's a boy going in this world
 
Writing stories and rhymes?"
 
   She tossed his unfinished poems on the kitchen floor
 
His bound manuscripts out the back door.
 
She said, "Horace, I'm warning you.
 
Get this work out the trash
 
You'll find a wedding ring in there too."
 
   For three days those dreams festered in that trash
 
Covered with Pasta, cooking oil, Marinara sauce
 
Everything he had ever written was lost.
 
   
 He watched the Sunny Hills Sanitation Company
 
Turn down 34th street and make a left at the corner.
 
One last time he tried to warn her.
 
He could barely hide his tears with his hands.
 
She said, "Now you can grow up and be a man."
 
  Then that truck turned left on 35th street
 
Then it turned right
 
And just like those dreams, it disappeared from sight
 
   
     Twenty years later
 
He sat in the Sunny Hills Convalescent home
 
Sick, lonely, old and alone
 
He couldn't even hold a pen
 
Or dial numbers on a phone
 
    He had forgotten nearly every simile
 
Every rhyme and every metaphor.
 
And every few weeks the Reaper
 
Carried one of his friends out that door.
 
   And though he couldn't remember
 
 His favorite color or baseball team
 
The one thing he couldn't forget
 
Were those lyrical dreams.
 
  
In the dining room of the hospital he had a guest.
 
It took two nurses to get the feeble man dressed.
 
A nurse said, Mr. Horace, this is your son.
 
Twice he had to be reminded that he had one.
 
He tried to reply, but his words failed.
 
  The young man said, "Dad, I have a writing degree.
 
I graduated with honors, from Yale.
 
 
 
But what the old man didn't know
 
Happened late in the night
 
Twenty years ago.
 
A young child
 
Went into that garbage can
 
Sorted through the pasta, salad, and uneaten bones.
 
And made those lyrical dreams his own.
 
And now those dreams live on.
 
                                                     -Michael Ellis

Copyright © | Year Posted 2016



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Date: 4/4/2021 6:11:00 PM
I like this ending. I am sad for the dad losing such an essential part of himself. I do appreciate the full circle ending. Blessings Brother Michael.
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Michael Ellis
Date: 4/11/2021 12:16:00 PM
I wish I could say this was all fiction. Actually the child in the story was my oldest daughter fishing my poetry out the trash..My disease however was depression. She graduated from a top school with High Honors in writing..
Date: 1/28/2016 6:45:00 PM
Is this you, Michael? You always manage to make me stop to gather myself after reading. I am glad for once that your write ended on a much happier note. Loved the way the story flows. Less words, more impact. I have to learn how to write like this. :-) Blessings!
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Ellis Avatar
Michael Ellis
Date: 1/28/2016 10:24:00 PM
So glad you asked Kim...I was actually the man and the boy was my daughter...She gathered my things from refuge
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