~

A high school reunion
where people trade names

and stories of glories,
enamors, and days

of spent youth, by mistruth –
The past is all changed.

“But, Mary was hot!
Is Mary the same?”

I play fool’s dominion
and give away not,

that Mary and I were
close in close ways;

but, I went to war,
while Mary did not.

“Johnny was tough.
Where’s Johnny these days?”

That Johnny has lost it;
now old, tired and lame.

“He spends dispensation,
all he is paid,

at gambling casinos
and horse racing games.”

But, “Mary was hot!”
comes up quite a lot.

Then someone else opens
up when he says:

“I whipped old rough Johnny,
for Johnny had banged

Mary, when Mary
and I were engaged.

All of this happened
past post high school days.”

I would have then known this,
but I went away

to some place, a strange name,
a war which was fought.

And Mary, the name there,
I completely forgot.

Mary’s, her name,
and Mary was hot.

But wildfire, like Mary’s,
contain, I could not;

so ‘out of the saddle’
I sat, I was shot.
~

©2014 Marvin Welborn
25 September 2014.