I remember a
Time long before
This one long
Before you were
You and I
Were I now
Two goslings paddling
About a placid
Pond in Wisconsin
Noticing a chill
A sound telling
Us to fly
My wings started
To flap going
Nowhere until I
Felt your push
From behind sending
Me skywards looking
Back I yelled
What about you
Worry not about
Me but fly
We’ll be together
Again in a
Different life when
We can at
Last walk together
Blond
Blue
Short
Play
Drink
Kiss
Ring
House
Lifetime
Happy
Garden
Betrayal
Heartbreak
Distance
Heartache
Memory
Others
Others
Forgive
Not
Forgot
And there is
A day here
In America on
The last Thursday
In November when
The skies are
Grey and littered
With snow and
The wind blows
Cold against faces
That people carry
Pots dishes pans
Wine and desserts
Into friendly houses
To gather around
A table giving
Thanks for those
Most important things
The greatest of
Which are their
Families however that
Group is defined
A day of
Laughter and football
Of stories and
Old jokes of
Belly busting feasts
Here in America
Today is Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving to
My friends and
Family I’m thinking
Of you all
The world has
Failed to be
A safe place
It’s innocence lost
Replaced instead with
Selfishness and despair
A barren place
Occupied by the
Damned who wander
Aimlessly ignorantly and
Painfully absent of
Even fond memories
Husks of what
They once were
Simply coldly forgotten
Content instead of
Heaping noxious travesties
Designed to fuel
Their flames of
Hopelessness upon the
Living that have
Barricaded themselves behind
The ever eroding
Walls of hope
Fear not being
One of the
Damned for those
Devastated souls do
Not read poetry
And like a
Late April pond
In Northern Wisconsin
We’ve weathered the
Cruelest harshest and
Frigid months of
Our relationship hunkering
Down like foxes
Deep in burrows
Choosing to wait
For winters passing
And like said
Pond continues to
Flow and grow
Beneath the ice
We must choose
To embrace what
We’ve become during
These dead months
Or remember what
We were all
Those seasons ago
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 