The Cat and the Crow

On a warm autumn morning Sara is going through the motions of her normal routine that she does every weekend morning. She has already rolled out of bed and absentmindedly done those things like start the coffee and use the bathroom. Sara decided to go and see if the paperboy had actually delivered the Saturday paper on time for a change and when she stepped outside into her front yard she noticed a crow looking for his morning meal of worms or anything he can scavenge.

As Sara got closer to the crow, she noticed that he was already eating something due to the pulling he was doing with his beak. When she got close enough to see what the crow was eating she saw an animal that was so mangled and eaten that she almost could not identify that it was what was left of what she thought was a stray cat that had decided to cut through her property. At first she didn’t notice the markings on the tail until she was on her way back towards her house after grabbing the morning paper.

Sara had looked over to the crow as he was eating and realized that the markings on the tail looked dreadfully familiar to her, she ran over shooing the crow away but the crow at first would not budge as she ran towards him and when he did fly off he flew right at her clawing at her face for a few seconds before flying off, leaving her with a few bleeding scratches as she knelt down in front of the cat with tears in her eyes as she picked up the collar letting her know that it was really her cat there in front of her.

As she knelt there crying, the crow came back and started crowing like crazy just out of range of Sara being able to throw anything at him. After a couple minutes of the crow squawking like crazy other crows started coming to see what was going on. Sara looking around at all of the crows coming and decided to get up slowly and walk back towards her house, when she started walking the crow making all of the fuss decided to fly right at her diving right at her head multiple times forcing her to run back to her house.

Sara hurried inside in hysterics trying to call a neighbor to come over and get rid of the crows in her yard, her neighbor realizing she was frightened, came over as quickly as he could with a baseball bat in his hand only to find a completely empty yard. As he walked up to the house he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary and proceeded to knock on Sara’s front door, when she opened up the door she did so very slowly and looking towards the ground to make sure it wasn’t the crow coming back again.

Slowly, she opened the door to see a pair of sneakers and let out a gasp of relief letting her neighbor in. She explained what had happened even showing the scratches to her face, she then brought him to where the crow had been eating her cat but there was nothing there, leaving her neighbor with a perplexed look on his face and Sara trying to explain that she really did see the crow eating her cat. With that her neighbor insisted that they go back into her house so he could make a cup of peppermint tea for her to relax her.

After they got back to the house Sara’s neighbor had her sit down at her kitchen table as he fumbled through her cabinets for her peppermint tea and a couple cups, afterwards he put on the kettle of water and said that he would look in the yard to see if she may have brought him to the wrong spot. He went out into the yard and searched the yard for a few minutes with out finding anything, coming back in he let her know that he couldn’t find anything as he was grabbing the kettle from the stove to pour the water.

He walked over and gave her the tea and then looked around for some biscuits or something else they could have with the tea. As he looked around Sara’s cat came out of no where jumping into his arms with the only thing missing was his collar for which Sara still had clutched in her hand. He then asked if she really saw what she did as he walked back into the kitchen with the cat in his arms. When Sara seen the cat in his arms she got even more upset to the point that she wanted nothing to do with the cat with the cat seeming to want nothing to do with her either.

Sara’s neighbor seeing how upset she was and seeing the cat not wanting anything to do with her offered to take the cat home for which she just said take him he’s yours now. So he said he would be right back and grabbed the cat carrier, the food and water bowls along with the cat food. He left so he could bring home the cat and set up the food and water bowls. After he got to his house he set the cat carrier down on his dining room table with the cat still in it so he could get the food and water set up, afterwards he went to let the cat out of his carrier but he wasn’t there in the carrier.

Sara’s neighbor was perplexed because there was no way for the cat to get out of the carrier due to it still being locked shut. He promptly looked though out his house for the cat and could not find him so he called Sara and asked if she remembered him putting her cat in the cat carrier with her saying that she watched him do it so that there was no way he could have gotten out unless he was let out. He then told her that I know he could not have gotten out but still he wasn’t there in the carrier even though he hadn’t been let out.

Sara’s neighbor proceeded to walk out side so he could go back of Sara’s house and stopped short out of sheer fright from what he could see on the sidewalk in front of his house. There was the cat just sitting there weighting for him but it was different, the cat had went from the healthy cat he held just a few minutes ago in Sara’s house to a cat that looked like it had been dead for days and picked at by some passing animals.

As he started walking again the cat took off back towards Sara’s house and Sara’s neighbor instantly started running toward her house and by the time he got to her front gate the cat was in the front yard and there it was again looking healthy, but this time he was there with a crow and they were playing as if they were old friends. When Sara’s neighbor entered the yard the cat and the crow stopped playing, with the crow flying off and the cat running up into a tree so it could enter the house through an open window.

When he seen the cat enter through the window after climbing the tree he rushed to the front door trying to open the door but not being able too and then started banging on the door with no luck, he then went out back to see if there was an open window out back so he would not have to climb the tree in the front yard. When he got to the back yard he noticed something he had never seen before which was a pair of headstones on a full sized headstone and the other a small one but both so faded that he didn’t bother to try to read.

As he stood there in shock the crow that had been outside with the cat flew up and landed on the larger headstone and started pecking on it. After a few minutes he ran back into the front yard to climb the tree to get into the house, he saw the door wide open so he entered Sara’s house calling her name at first getting no response then hearing some crying coming from the kitchen and Sara calling for him. As she came into view he noticed that she had her head on the table and her hair now looked like it hadn’t been washed for days and un-brushed.

He then asked how are you holding up, and as she lifted her head she asked how do you think? As he stood there unable to move, she looked at him asking what with him hesitating then saying that he had to leave. He then tried to leave and Sara tried to keep him there by saying stay a while I am just about to take some biscuits out of the oven to have with our peppermint tea. Again she asked what?

This time he said there is something wrong, you need to look in the mirror, so she went and went into the bathroom to look at herself and asked are you sure there is something wrong, he then walked into the bathroom only to look at her and then at the mirror and seeing something he knew to be impossible and that was her look like she had been dead for years in front of him but in the mirror looking alive and well, with the roles in reverse for him.

He then walked slowly out of the bathroom backwards so he could watch her, and then ran out of the house only to see the cat and the crow again in the front yard. He then decided to go around back to leave through the back yard seeing the headstones again, he figured take a look to see if he could see any names on the headstones.
When he walked over he realized that they were not as worn as he had originally thought and seen the names on them, the larger one was that of his neighbor Sara with it saying that she died of a broken heart after finding her cat being eaten by a crow and the headstone beside it said here lies what was left of Sara’s beloved cat with both headstones being dated many years before he moved into the neighborhood. With that he ran home to find the cat and the crow on his back porch looking over towards the far end of his porch.

As he walked over to see what they were looking at he found another headstone this time it had his name on it with almost the same date as there was on the headstones at Sara’s house and his headstone said that he died of shock from finding his neighbor dead at her table days after she died with biscuits and peppermint tea for two still on the table. He could not believe his eyes and slowly walked into his house to find Sara there waiting for him this time looking alive and well and upon seeing him she said welcome home it feels like many years since you left to visit the new neighbor.

Which do I

Which do I

Why is it that I can’t help feel as if we are meant for each other

I can’t help but stare into your eyes, for they appear to be intoxicating

I feel as if I have been waiting for you all of my life and don’t know what I would
Do if you were no longer there in my life

I want so much to show you how I feel about you but I would be playing the
Part of a fool if I rushed in if I were to go with what I would like to do

As much as I want to be with you I know that I would be better off building
A lasting friendship with you so you can be there in my life even if I have to
Contain how I really feel for you

For Grampy 1928-2008

As We Remember

As we say good bye we can’t help but look back and see that we were given
An angel in disguise who cared more than we can ever know

As he gets called home to watch over us, we feel an endless emptiness which
Causes us great sadness that subsides as a wave of happy memories rush over
Us letting us know that he is still here with us and trying to ease the pain
We feel inside

As we look back through the years we find that through it all he was there
Giving us love and protection, the direction that made us who we are today while
We realize that our world is a better place because of him

As we try to remember everything we can’t help but know that you were the strength
That kept us going through the good and the bad

As we remember, in the swirling of memories we remember that
He kept us safe and warm and those memories now dance in our minds
Even though they are from far away and long ago

As we go through our memories we find that we could not be who we
Were meant to be with out him and for that he was the one who taught
Us how to soar above the clouds

As the days turn into years you will forever be in our hearts, always guiding
Us without us even knowing that you are doing it

In the end we look back on the memories and find that we are blessed to
Have had you in our lives, a hero for whom we call dad, grampy, and granddad
That we will miss but will be waiting for us when we are called home to
Welcome us home

Just once

Just Once

Just once I wish I could tell you how I really feel for you

If only I could read through all of the different signals that you have
Been sending my way

Just once I wish that you cold show me how you really feel whether it be
Just friend or more

If only I could get past the feeling that you are unsure of yourself
Around me given your action

Just once I wish I could understand why your body language suggests one
Thing when explaining something’s but yet state the exact opposite

If only I could be who I want to be with you

Wishing for someone out there

Wishing for someone out there

When we are alone and wishing that somewhere out there we had someone
Special out there looking for you, you end up wishing upon a star under the pale
Moonlight

You slowly start feeling that someone is praying that you will find them so
They don’t have to keep singing that lonely lullaby that they have gotten use to

At times you feel like you are miles apart from each other even though you are
Sleeping under the same starry sky wishing for that someone to come and
Find you out there

As you wish upon that falling star, you find that it in time becomes that
Rainbow that see for which leads you to that someone that has been
Just as lost and alone as both of you realize that, that person that you
You have been looking for has been right in front of you all along

For my Uncle Jimmy 1966-2008

As We Say Goodbye

As we say goodbye as we must, it is still hard to say goodbye to what
We know, to what we knew we had

Though we look to tomorrow for brighter days, there is still this deep sense of
Loss, of a pain that feels like it just doesn’t want to end

In time only the good times that made us laugh will be there to remind us
Of how we were before you left

All though it is hard to let you go we will have the memories to bring us out of
The fog that fills our hearts and our minds

Even still you will remain in our hearts always and forever and though destiny
Called you home first it teaches us we have to be strong all though we will
Forever feel you over our shoulder watching over us

In the end we still find that you going home gives, us something to believe in by
Knowing that you will be there to bring us home when the time comes

Until that day comes we will in our darkest hours find that our memories of you
Act like an angel that keeps us safe and warm inside pulling us from the darkness
That could have engulfed us

Our pain is eased by knowing that you have been welcomed home by an angel who we
All know and love who had been called home to help guide us home when needed

nieces and nephews

nieces and nephews

a niece likes to tune out the world and be in a world of her own

nephews are endlessly distracted by what others seem to consider mondain

a niece loves secretly talking to her friends especially when she knows she should not be doing it just then

nephews always seem ready to play sports just for the sake of running around like mad men

a niece would rather her parents come to her level rather than trying to grow to their level

nephews love playing video games while having you play the games for them as they watch

nieces and nephews tend not to let you think they care but when something goes wrong they are among the first to wonder what happened and why you are hurt

in the end they are among the kindest people anyone could ever want to know and don't know how you would live without them in your world

This One Thing

This One Thing

If there were one thing that I knew of, I may not understand why,
It may not even be something that I know to be on my mind

That one thing may keep me enthusiastic and just sort of happens when I least
Expect it, it could be the one simple thing that has been eluding to something but
Yet has always been eluding me

It may make me restless and giddy like a child in his element by being
Who he wants to be

This one thing could give you the hunger; the drive to make you capable of
Doing what you have always wanted to do

But in the end that one thin is unique to the individual for that individual is the
Only one who can figure out what that one thing is for himself

the first day of a new job

the first day of a new job can be very tiresome

the first day of a new job can be very hectic

the first day of a new job can seem like it will never end

the first day of a new job can be exhilarating

the first day of a new job is a welcome event when it is wanted

the first day of a new job is always a life changing event

Bit by BIt

Bit by Bit

With each passing step we feel as if all we are just pawns in a chess match
That we are tempted and enticed into playing the game even as we
Watch each other get torn apart bit by bit from not being able to see
That we are feeding an unseen addiction that has taken hold of our
Societies

As the emptiness we feel sets in, and is, the only thing that remains you wish
There were people there to help you play the game but all you can do
To release the pain is to yell out “will you come out and play with me”
For anyone and everyone to hear the sound of your voice as you wonder
If there is anyone out there to hear you

While the pain in your heart feels like it is mounting up you can’t help but not
Want to get up in the morning with it causing your head to spin out of control you
Get up just to know that you are still alive and to let them know that the
Battle is till going on even though it looks like they have torn you apart bit
By bit

Step by step you show them that even though you have been tossed around like a
Toy soldier, battle wages on past the emptiness that they have given you so
That everyone around you sees that even with being torn apart bit by bit they
Still have something to fight for and they are the ties that bind, like brotherhood
Family, and love which is a goal that is always in sight from the start but
Attained through the battle that wages on

As time goes by

As time goes by

As the time goes by and you are feeling like you are old and gray
You can’t tell if there is anyone who still cares even as everyone shows
That they do still care

With each new day they show you that what you taught them is like the
Mighty tree that you planted and watched over as it grew into what
They are today due to you making sure they were well rooted in
Their lives

They can’t help but tell you that even though they didn’t show it when growing
Up they are proud of what you sacrificed for them by showing you the
Seeds that they have planted with it being their turn to watch things take
Root and it looks like a small but hardy flowering bush that will
Grow into a towering rose bush that has the most beautiful roses which
Bloom so beautifully in the spring and summer of what we call life

In the end when you have realized that everyone still cares it is like seeing
That illusive double rainbow that has the brilliantly vivid colors that
Seem to just wash over your very existence in every way and
Radiating an energy that allows you to feel the happiest that you have ever
Been while momentarily giving you a feeling of youthful vigor

The tie that binds

The tie that binds

When you are the tie that binds you find that you can’t
Just walk the line; you are the one that has to tow the line

You find that to just walk the line will not let you get by with
All of those who need you to be there

When you tow the line everyone thinks that you are just a pain
When they would like to do what they want

As you learn to tow the line you find that there is no greater
Job out there and not everyone be the tie that binds

When time goes by you find that being the tie that binds it is easy
To make people think you are just walking the line even when you
Are really towing the line