When a heart's rhythm is out of rhyme
drastic measures are oft applied.
Two Cardiac inversions in one week
were needed to give her heart a tweak.
After that an I.V. Drip
to ensure no need for a third trip.
Now my sister is home
but feeling weak,
having died twice, so to speak.
My sister cheated the Reaper twice!
"Play the lotto!" is my advice.

Once more she finds herself in a Nashville hotel.
She does things here for money that she’d rather  not tell.
She came To music city with her battered  old guitar.
But dreams without luck never get you very far.

The streets here are crowded with others as well,
Whose voices were lacking or whose  tunes didn’t sell:
Her friend Bob drives the tour bus all the day long
Telling tales to the tourists; where did he go wrong?
He came here to write and he joined BMI
Now his hair is receding as the years pass him by.

She herself dreamed of performing in the old grand oprey,
But the call never came and her rent isn’t free.
So now she performs nightly in the finest hotels
For small select audiences who pay her well.
It’s not the sheet music that she had in mind
As she gives voice to a tune as old as mankind.

When death comes out of a clear blue sky
Despair might be forgivable:
The  peaceful calm of a September morn
Reduced to darkness visible.

The sky was filled with smoke and ash.
Nobody’s cell phones worked.
Two scared sisters were on their own
To escape out of ground zero.

Their  first thought was to walk the  bridge
To get themselves from there.
They both worked close to the trade center
And it was hard to breathe the air.


By some work of fate or Providence
They chanced to find a bus
It took them from the cauldrons’ edge
And brought them back to us.

Eighteen years now to the day
Since two thousand people were turned to dust
Memories linger in strange ways:
My wife still won’t board a city bus.

I’ll be along my dear
In just a little while.
We will soon be reunited,
My heart gladdened by your smile.

I can’t forget your loveliness;
As you wore your favorite dress.
No more than I’d forget your love
Or  the day that we first met.

Yes this parting was a sorrow,
It’s no shame that I confess.
It’s true my heart felt heavy
From  this sudden loneliness.

We will soon be reunited
Dear companion of my heart.
Never more will we be lonely
When we’re nevermore apart.

She smiles for the camera;
Since a young girl she’s been taught
to show a brave face to the world:
Never bare ones inner thoughts.

She smiles for the camera
And disguises feeling blue.
She thought that she would be his bride.
She never guessed he’d prove untrue.

She smiles for the camera
With her auburn hair undone.
So when people see this image
They’ll think:”How happy this one was.”

She smiles for the camera
With a heart that nears its break.
You might think she’s doing well,
She intends that you make that mistake.

The pain and anguish she endures
Are daggers of the mind,
Concealed beneath the smiling face
Of the girl he left behind.

There were reports of a shooting
Someone called Nine -one -one.
Another young man dead-
all because of a gun.
I heard a woman weeping
as I ran to the scene.
She held her dead son in her arms
She held the death of his dreams.
Dusk was yielding to darkness
on this unholy night.
As she keened for her child
in the yellow streetlight.
As the warmth left his body
She refused my pleas to yield
As if holding him to her
made his dying not real.
The thought crossed my mind,
as I heard his mother moan,
That I had seen this once before,
as a sculpture in stone.

I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day and through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children's carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you