I never knew who you were
In that past, now a blur
It was not my concern, I concur
You have grown, of that I am sure

I want you just the way you are
In life experiences
You have come so far
But now I raise the bar

I want you for who you can be
The new man who married me
Demon and trouble free
Because now it is we

You need to see
You can’t change…
Who you were?
Who you are

But..

Who you can be?
Is now up to me
As long as you love me
Everyday
You will get a fresh start
A bigger place in my heart
You can only be
The one I love
Because
Of the way you love me

I fall apart
Frozen in awe
Seeing the beauty as it hits
My arms parted to feel the whole of my being.
I am washed of pain and heartbreak
That I will never have again.
I stand free for all to behold
As this heart has been given
Another chance…

You left your mark on me
It is there for all to see

Most of all me…

It is in the smile on my face
The twinkle of my eye

The way we kiss
When we say goodbye

It is etched upon my heart
As I bask in your loving embrace

you thief
who stole my
simple dreams and
hopes
and dashed them
to pieces on the floor of our lives
while I watched
helpless in my efforts
to save them

you stole a piece of
my life and
ran away a
thief in the night
who kept looking over
his shoulder to see
if he’s been caught

the difference here
is this thief has
no profit
because we both
end up
empty handed

Pat for kjm
April 12, 1986

It’s the anniversary of her death
I am reminded of it every year
Not so much by the calendar
But by my internal clock of pain
You remember the place
You remember the time
Her look of final peace
Our mother
Our monster
We lived our lives in hell
For all of her drunken antics
We were the ones to feel the pain
She drank
…We suffered
As children we never understood her demons
Did she love us?
Why did she hurt us?
What did we do to make her act this way?
We were innocent
Frightened young souls
Doomed to grow up
Broken…
Shattered…
Pieces scattered throughout our lives
Never knowing how to be whole.
You would have been a hundred this year if you had lived
We have grown to forgive you
Finally finding our place in this world
On our own…
We made it to the other side
So
Farewell Isabelle
You did the best you could

Patty LeDuc
February 4, 2019
Scattered Thoughts 2019
(In memory of Isabelle Krumm)