In this house that love built
Things are not the same
What once was filled with happiness
Is now just filled with blame
Mama started drinking again
When daddy stayed out late
With cold suppers on the table
Salted with tears of hate
No more friday night popcorn
Where we gathered to watch Tv
Now this house is filled with lies
Where once was honesty
What happened to the man an wife,
Who swore to love their spouse?
No one seems to remember me
They're strangers in my house
The little house that love built
Was sold the other day
They tell me that it wasn't my fault
At least that's what they say
I’ve had a fair share of tragedy in my life,
When my father passed away I found I lost two cousins too
When I flew to Zimbabwe I almost separated from my wife
So you see my tragedy excelled and grew
Two years later I found I was flying back home
Mama had died in her house all alone
So my sister told me over the phone
Again separation with my wife was on the cards as I roam
She wanted the house and everything in it
My wife expected me to give it up because we has a son
But before I left I had to ensure her I was not beat
I told her by law I’m entitled to half and she knew I won
So forgive me when I write only funny rhyme
Tragedy is something I have not learned to deal with, I confess.
These are a few of the tragedies in my time
And until I fine a way to cope with it, it will be the funnies I address.
Laughter is the best medicine
Walking through the cementary
Raining
Water running down the tombstones
Like blood running down a face
I see eight graves
Old men. All died on the same day
I get down on my knees
And take a look
This old man died when a druggo took his stick and hit him on the head
This old man died when he got pushed into the pool by a teenager
This old man died when he got shot by a young hoodlum
This old man died when he got stabbed in the chest by a Grand Theft Auto addict
This old man died when he accidentally walked into no mans land on his holiday to Iraq
This old man died when he got crushed in a crowd at a new years party
This old man died in a house fire when a drunk arsonist lit his house up in flames
And this old man, he just collapsed while blowing out the candles on his 100th birthday cake
Only one of those men died a natural death
Oh how sad it is
Oh the futility!
This world is becoming a place where people think murder is fun
That's why the governments have restrictions on having a gun
If peace was a number it would be decreasing to none
Gods getting angry. He'll one day end the world. Thats us done
He left the house that winters night never to return
A quick stop at the convenient store to buy a pack of smokes
The town was baffled by his leave they thought all was okay
But sure enough it was his last day upon the earth
His name was Jimmy Shelton, in town so loved by all
Came from a wealthy family, they ran the local mall
He left behind a wife and kids, two cats and an ugly dog
And where he went they do not know, he left deep in the fog
Countless days and countless nights each man who lived in town
Searched the hollow and in the woods no trace of him was found
To all he seemed a happy soul, he loved his family
So why he left no one would know, just only wonder why
Many many years went by he never did return
Though difficult to accept this fate, his family did move on
But still today they all still hope for a miracle return
Each house no smoking signs displayed in memory of their one
©2009 J R Vick
11/06/2009
They came in silence,
moving through the speckled shadows of the dawn
half-life
half-something else;
a strangeness
They came in with the news,
not in it
not carrying it to us;
but with the news they arrived,
silently.
We only read the words,
but with the reading,
we knew they had arrived
and what was ours
was passing from us.
They’re sitting now in every room.
At night we almost hear them.
Fragmented whispers from up in the attic space,
beneath the eaves, where they have frightened
swallows from their nests.
Uninvited, they came
and like spiders filled the empty spaces.
The house is full now
and every empty room inhabited.
Never seen but always present,
they have made this house their home.
No fuss.
No malice.
But we know now this house is theirs
and we are only tenants.