Temporary Insanity
Afternoon musing, not quite content,
Wondering where the time all went -
The time not really given, only lent.
The first day of fourth grade,
In the next desk a new girl stayed,
With honey colored hair all in a braid.
It would not be easy to concentrate.
How could a teacher educate
A boy so close to a pretty schoolmate?
Boys and girls about us knocked,
While we two, on the blacktop walked -
Of explorers seeking gold we talked.
I was only up to a grasshopper’s knee
And already sick with temporary insanity.
But in the blink of an eye, time unfroze,
And as fast as I grew into a new set of clothes,
I forgot that sweet girl by the school year’s close.
Into our sixth grade class, a new girl flew.
In the wind, this tomboy’s long hair blew.
Like the sun in the sky, her smile shone true.
I dreamed of her both day and night
And contrived where I might of her catch sight -
And so upward soared my heart like a kite.
It’s good that it did not hit a tree,
As I came down again from temporary insanity.
Time passes so quickly, it cannot delay
The tasks on fate’s calendar, which it must obey,
So I forgot her bright smile, in a swift summer day.
In Spanish class, fifteen years of age,
One day I looked up from the page,
With her laughing eyes I did engage -
And, so, for the first time, a girl I’d touch.
You couldn’t say, I did not like it much.
The feeling was otherworldly, such.
Next thing I knew, my heart took a leap,
But it fell into a hole so deep.
From it, it took some time to creep.
I’m sure that you will all agree,
It was a bad case of temporary insanity.
Unthinkable though it may be,
That young girl would not hear my plea.
It was I who was forgot, not she.
My life would continue to unfold,
Like a sculptor, my life’s features fate would mold -
She doesn’t like a story, unshaped, untold.
Ten years later, I would find
A brown-eyed treasure, God designed.
To love each other, we were inclined.
I was twenty-five and she nineteen.
She was a gift from heaven - unforeseen.
We’d go everywhere and back and in-between.
At least that was to be the plan,
Based on the way our story began.
To pass up this chance, I’d be a crazy man.
One day, on a bench in a mall I sat.
Joining me was an old lady that
Sat silently too. We did not chat.
My sweetheart popped out from a store with a smile,
Proudly showing me shoes in the latest style.
She went back in, the old lady smiled: “keep her” (not just a while).
My heart confirmed the words of the lady grey,
But “be my wife”, I was afraid to say.
Was she the one that got away?
Maybe the day I set her free
Was my worst case of temporary insanity.
Once in a while in a memory so strong,
I hear her singing me a Christmas song.
Forty years later, and I now sing along.
Yes, despite the passing of many a moon,
Sometimes I still hear that tune -
No, time does not make me immune.
And now, to cut this story short,
Similar nonsense, I’ll not report.
Twice, the endings were in court.
A better man might look deeper than me,
And see more than just temporary insanity.
At least one thing time can’t destroy -
The immutable everlasting joy
Which began, the day I was blessed with a boy.
I guess love makes the world go around.
Every boy and girl with gratitude must be bound,
Their existence owed to minds unsound.
But now, I think that I am finally free
With over four years of sobriety
From the dreaded scourge of temporary insanity.
Now afternoon has gone to night.
My thoughts do my dreams incite.
And they are quite a fright.
I cannot tell if it’s long ago past,
Or if it’s more of a future forecast,
Or a repeat, many times amassed.
It might be that I’m at St. Peter’s gate,
Or maybe hoping to reincarnate,
And the judge will soon decide my fate.
“Show me mercy, I know I’ve done bad.
Must your rules of judgment be ironclad?
It was temporary insanity I had”.
“That’s a sentence, not a plea.
You’ll serve a lifetime of temporary insanity.”
Copyright ©
David Crandall
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