Dear Beverly

Just stopped in to say hello.

            Mi Amor.  You remembered me.

Always.

Got the opening to a new poem about ripples in a pond and how events in life are set in motion by things sometimes beyond our control.  

It goes like this.

A soldier dies.

A widow grieves

And seeks a new beginning.

I can’t seem to get to the next stanza. 

You see, if the soldier lives, I don’t exist.

The ripples on that pond never happened.

The soldier was my grandfather, who died in Abbeville, France five days before the end of World War I.  

The widow who grieves is my grandmother who leaves Scotland as a result of his death and comes first to Canada and then to the United States.  His death sets that in motion.

If he lives, she stays and all that followed is swept away.  I don’t exist and all that I’ve done and everything that flowed out from that is gone.  We never met and all that flowed out from that doesn’t happen either. 

The next stanza as I wrote it is …

A sniper chooses.

One goes home, while

An island grave is the other’s ending.

But it doesn’t really fit.  At least that is my feeling.

Will work on the puzzle.

Got a tune for you today … enjoy.

Gerry Rafferty: Get It Right Next Time

Out on the street I was talkin’ to a man

He said "there’s so much of this life of mine that I don’t understand"

You shouldn’t worry yes that ain’t no crime

Cause if you get it wrong you’ll get it right next time (next time).

You need direction, yeah you need a name

When you’re standing in the crossroads every highway looks the same

After a while you can recognize the signs

So if you get it wrong you’ll get it right next time (next time).

Life is a liar yeah life is a cheat

It’ll lead you on and pull the ground from underneath your feet

No use complainin’, don’t you worry, don’t you whine

Cause if you get it wrong you’ll get it right next time (next time).

You gotta grow, you gotta learn by your mistakes

You gotta die a little everyday just to try to stay awake

When you believe there’s no mountain you can climb

And if you get it wrong you’ll get it right next time (next time).

Next time, hmmmmm