The emotional scars were first etched in my heart at about the same time as I started riding the school bus. My girls used to refer to my mode of transportation as the "loser cruiser". Jimmy Buffett found his love in the library. My first experience was on the bus. Jimmy Buffett and I went to school together, much later, at the University of Southern Mississippi. He chose fame and fortune, but I got the prettiest girl on campus. Sorry Jimmy - Eat your heart out. On one of his early albums, Jimmy did a song called, "Love in the Library". I never heard it until a librarian in Fort Smith asked me to sing it at a meeting of librarians in the area. I'll bet Buffett never experienced an audience like that. I had been doing gigs at nursing homes and boy scout campouts when I got the call. I got the words and chords and found I really liked the song. It was one of those memory makers. The following is one verse and a chorus from that number.I was a pirate, she was the queen
Sir Francis and Elizabeth, the best there’s ever been.
Then she strolled past my table and stopped at the stairs
then sent me a smile as she reached for Flaubert.
Chorus:
Love in the library
quiet and cool.
Love in the library
there are no rules.
Surrounded by stories
surreal and sublime.
I fell in love in the library
once upon a time.
Now and again when I see a school bus, I can feel those early scars. I penned a poem to capture the memories of those days.
Hazy Maybes
I used to hate
those days of
hazy maybes.
Heavy hearted
mooning hours
of hoping.
Days of trying to
make you smile
back at me.
Just one toothy
sign of
acceptance.
Sit near me.
Speak in my direction.
Others watched,
so we remained
estranged.
Stuck in the starting
gate.
Then, on the school bus,
you took my hand.
We talked.
What madness.
Crazy new feelings.
I phoned,
and phoned.
You said,
“don’t call me anymore.”
Maybe hazy maybes
weren’t as bad as
I thought.
Brett Favre retired. I am feeling old. He was born the year I graduated from USM.
The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'. - Larry Hardiman
