Graduation

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Picked up my sons cap and gown
At the campus book store in the college town
The clerk was so thrilled                      
Congratulated me and ask    
Is a masters gown to get down
No a bachelors I said
You should be so proud
Having graduated after all these years

Couldn't spoil her confusion.              
I just went along with her illusion
Told her it took nearly 40 years
Had to work full time and such
The effort was almost too much
But I finally made it
I then put it the trunk
Of my alumni plated Benz
Heading off to my son's graduation

Copyright 2014
Richard L Ratliff

i.

the night wanders
down a beautiful pathway
where a river sighs and
everything is filled with the quiet light of stars.

ii.

bird, fluid as a dream,
sky, river of air,
stream of colossal cloud.

iii.

ghosts winding through
dream clouds, tall castles,
ivy-covered walls.


iv.

jasmine sea,
torn landscape,
loves battered roses.

v.

still i wait for you
the sky is filled forever
with all my tears.

He broke his silence for her
He broke the rules he never should
Said what he felt like he did
He engaged with a fence sitter
Not knowing he was throwing
his heart under her feet

His eyes were blazing
His soul searing
His risk was great
His reputation at stake

Did he love her?
Should he say that he did?
Would she respond
Would she understand?

Oh she did understand!
Oh she did want it just they same!
Only her freedom was not hers to claim!

She loved him the only way she could
His happiness his dreams where precious to her
She was the distraction he could not afford
No one was going to be happy with this arrangement she understood

Sometimes it is so easy to loose yourself
in the moment and forget about the rest
But then the moment comes back to haunt
It should never have been!
Those words spoken those feelings rent
The soul laid bare and naked, exposed

Then she ran away, as fast as she could
For she saw in him her reality
A mirror of herself
He loved her as she loved him
What next, what next?

Will he forgive her
Why should he?
Why should he?
She broke his rules.

I can brush my feelings away
down, down, into the dust
But they'll always come back to play
and to create more rust.

Under the rug, that's where they go
but never do chance to stay,
because they know they've got more hold
if they take hold in my brain.

Remember when, under the silver clouds,
We found ourselves wondering the fields hand in hand?
Watching the cars buzz by
Striding through the light spray of rain
As we lost the sense of time

Strolling through the caresses of the grass
We roamed the fields of our glare
The rays of your smile
The lily pink shade of your lips
Remain inked in my heart

Now, I can only dream
Of sharing one last dance with you

Love blossomed like a spring flower
Small and hopeful
Like a promise of sunshine
Shielding the greys of winter.
And it shone within me
Like a candle
Flickering through the darkness
A ray of hope to grab onto
Like a safety rope.
But holding onto it was like
Hanging off a cliff edge
It burned my fingertips
As I stayed
So close to falling
And yet so close
To being saved
If only somebody
Would reach and pull me up.
But time went on
And the sun began to shine too brightly
Scorching me.
Yet, still I stayed, close to the warmth
As I was tired of the cold
And I was tired now
As it was just too easy
To shut my eyes
Lean back
And fall.