Annie's Rose

                                  Annie's Rose

I knew you before I knew you.
I met you before I shook your hand.
We were young but we traveled together

Somehow pain traveled with you
And at times it defined you
But you found a way to rebel
Against that too.

High School adventures beckoned you
And I was always with you.
Like chapstick for the soul
The Adventures covered the pain
for awhile.

We were like Madonna and the 80's song
We lived to Tell
Well, we were supposed to Live to Tell
but you changed all that and it still catches up with me.

I still struggle with all of this
Now I am less
Because you are less with me
Because you are less with me.

I write because I wanted to somehow
Settle with you, settle with me.
So I write for me as much as for you.

When I write I manage to progress somewhere
I can save old things till they tear
But I could not save you, and now I often tear
And you made sure
I could not open that door that closed you.

My friend Tom knows about you
But he only knows your name
He does know that pain can somehow teach
If we can manage to embrace.

If we can share it as a life lesson
Then the pain does lesson
Like wearing better shoes
To walk the hard street.

So Becky, that you for the unwanted gift
Of hard-edged, soul-shaking understanding
Maybe I cannot slay the monster
But I can tame it some.

The wound can close a bit
And we can move forward in a better place
In a still-challenged world
Some flowers can still bloom in the desert.
Annie and Annie's Rose can still be seen.