Next To Me

I’ll try to write it all down again

It was wrong so many times before

Words roll through my mind

Telling the story of me walking

In the shadows looking for you

 

Replaying all the things I didn’t say

Sleeping in the dark reaching for you

I long for you to be next to me

The space is cold and empty, without you

 

Without you I run wild

Through the mist and fog

Back to the time when you loved me

Back to the time when you were next to me

When you were next to me

Next to me, next to me

 

I’ve tried my best to get you out of my mind

Tried to forget the warmth of you by my side

Your ghost follows me in the night

Whispering the words, I never told you

All I want is your body next to mine

 

Release the locks that bind me

Trace the lines to find the key

Alone with echoes of your voice

Trapped in the chaos with no choice

 

Without you I run wild

Through the mist and fog

Back to the time when I loved you

Back to the time when you were next to me

When you were next to me

When you were next to me

Next to me, next to me, next to me

LAL (c)

11/10/22

Or Can I Go On

I don’t like walking

Down the avenue

Passing strangers

Thinking about you

I don’t like being a refugee

In the four walls of blue

Drinking cold coffee

Thinking about you

 

I remember that fall

And you were mine

Laughing, singing, hoping

Wasting too much time

 

Has it been too long, too long

To think about you

Has it been too long, too long

Or can I go on without you

 

I don’t like driving at night

As streetlights pass me by

Wanting to stop the fight of

Thinking about you

 

I don’t like waiting for a

Fleeting glimpse of

Your shadow in my mind

Moving on, not looking behind

I remember that fall

And you were mine

Laughing, singing, hoping

Wasting too much time

 

Has it been too long, too long

To think about you

Has it been too long, too long

Or can I go on without you

 

I don’t like sitting under the pines

In our Westside park

And drinking too much wine

Thinking about you

 

I don’t like lying in bed

As the moon comes up 

Seeing the light fall away

Thinking about you

 

I remember that fall

Coloring outside the lines

Heading across town to

Dance at the disco hall

 

I remember that fall

And you were mine

Holding hands walking the line

Wanting much more time

 

Has it been too long, too long

To think about you

Has it been too long, too long

To think about you

Or can I go on without you

Or can I go on without you

Or can I go on without you 

LAL (c)

9/22

Prologue--Mystic Tea

 Prologue

It was hot. Too hot to work. The kind of hot that the devil begged for air conditioning. Too hot to stand still; you had to move to generate a small breeze but not fast enough to exert a lot on energy. The only place that Kate could find relief from the delta heat was under a large live oak next to the river bank. She stretched out on the semi cool grass hoping for a breeze to come off the river.  Days like these in the deep south were torturous. There was not enough iced sweet tea in the true southern states to cool down from the sweltering days of summer.

Kate had drifted off under the live oak. Her mind dreamed.  Dreamed of finer things, exotic vacation spots and porches where rocking chairs creaked in rhythm to the southern women who sat in them. She loved southern women. It is what she knew. They were whom she related to as women from the north to harsh and abrasive for her taste. For her, southern women were gentle and charming. They were home.  She dreamed of these women. There were three of them sitting on a veranda. They were dressed in white and ivory linen dresses with wide brimmed straw hats cocked to one side or the other. They were chatting about things that one could only imagine. Sweet perfumed perspiration tickled down their breast bones to vacation spots that only southern dreams are made of. Perfumed handkerchiefs blotted the perspiration from their rosy cheeks.  They were sweet smelling, coy, sexing, tantalizing, ambrosial, sensual, delicious, voluptuous, and alluring. In her dream, she was compelled to walk to that veranda and sit with them. As she approached, they turned, gave her a quick smile and like a flash of lighting they were gone. Leaving her with the memory of their faces and the aroma of their jasmine handkerchiefs.

 The sound of the rushing of the river woke Kate from her reverie and she was smiling. The thought of those belles on that veranda will live long in her memory. And when the hot delta sun beats down on her brow, all she has to do is think of them and heat fades away.