Thoughts

When I was asked where I want to put my treasures I was shown a metal safe and a beautiful vase I thought the safe drab, and so chose the vase I was proud, indeed, and showed this to all who’d look Then, a stumble thrust the vase high Down it came, and shattered I was cut, so cut that I could little move All the beauty of that vase was now but shards of memory I noticed among the treasures, those treasures laid bare Something I had forgotten I’d added It was a toy I’d stolen as a kid and tucked away below all else For I did not want to remember it, though I dare not throw it out I picked it up for the first time in decades Studied its dirty, broken exterior Paint marred from years of rust And thrust it down in disgust Just then an old man walked near “Say, young man,” said he, “how much for the broken car?” Why, I asked, would he want it? “It reminds me of my own car, years ago.” He removed from his coat pocket a car, polished and clean “It looks like you had ...

The captain groaned a sour note When once he spied the dreadful news His rudder on the sea afloat Its bearing did his ship now lose Adrift, the skipper raised his hands His face fell drained of every hue For nowhere could he spy safe lands Nor compass tell if north was true From peace a sudden squall began That darkened ship and sea the same With clouds’ descent to shroud that man Obscuring more his eyes and frame With hope but gone, he dropped to knees To pray that ground would graze the ship His tears mixed with the rain and freeze  At once they wet his quivered lip The calm had fled, the silence gone There little hope for light or dawn But in that dread the whisper spoke The words like warmth wrapped as a cloak While countless signs said all was lost Still there he rose to face the cost The tempest churned and tossed the craft Though planted still he mocked and laughed For what is fear but hope adrift The downcast face that fails to lift But brave a...