The Road Ahead

Two score and a decade have past It's time to be reflective To take account of all I've done And put it in perspective All my wild oats are sown The grain is in the bin Sometimes I wish I had a way To show just where I've been I map out my destruction So those who come will know The roads that I have taken Are not the way to go I've climbed the tree of life And sampled all the sins The good ones and the bad ones I've set foot on every limb I've bathed in pools of sorrow I've danced in pleasures rain I've walked through fields of glory And suffered human pain I've battled my afflictions I've embraced the joy of love I took what I was given And thanked the Lord above Not everything was happy Yet all was not that bad I'm grateful for the journey Through the life that I have had So now I sit in retrospect Of all my living days Writing down my words of life To put them on display The echos of my mothers words Still linger in my head "Don't mess around with all those things Or one day you'll be dead" My father lived to eighty two He drank and smoked and cussed My mother lived to eighty one And never touched the stuff He sat there at the alter Of his favorite bar and grill Drinking sacrificial booze And giving up his will She was pure with heart of gold She never went astray Yet life left her a decade with No thoughts of yesterday Alzheimers was her reward For doing all things right Bed ridden in her final days Until she saw the light Who's to say how it will end Or where that place will be A gutter in the streets of life Or home where I should be So as I sit and contemplate These moments of my past I think about the road ahead And how long it will last Rockman :-)