Just a twig on the family tree

 

Iron your clothes, brush your hair

but there’s still something missing there

shoes polished, shining bright

but something remains wrong tonight

wash your hands and your face

you’re getting closer to what’s out of place

it’s about your hand - the left, not the right

seems one finger is just too light

 

No diamonds or rubies on that finger

they say is like a song missing from a singer

like a woman standing outside in the cold

is a ring finger completely devoid of gold

families chat and wonder why

you stay at home and don’t even try

or if you’re a girl, why your beauty doesn’t speak

to eligible men who might seek

 

At gatherings and reunions

they frown and stare

“her hand is quite lovely

but so, so bare”

 

But a finger isn’t all there is to life

(my arm’s still warm without a wife)

our hopes and dreams shouldn’t begin or end

the moment we find a bed-time friend 

25 years, maybe 30, or 33 like me

we’re just a twig on the family tree

I’m blooming leaves but not as much

as my sisters with the family touch

 

But if no woman makes a shadow, I can’t see it cast

an absent girl’s words, in my mind they won’t last

it’s the missing perfume I have a hard time detecting

instead I’ll turn to this moment which deserves perfecting 

 

Today, this life, this minute, this second

she’s my dream, my joy, my romance 

I’ll love a woman one day, but till then

with her I’ll gladly ask to dance

 

I was beaming as I sat on my bed hammering this out last night because after many years of focusing on a void in my life, I can finally see what’s really there.  I think if you focus on a void in your life for too long (like the lack of a spouse), that void can become a “black hole”, sucking all your emotions and passion into it.  Then you have nothing left for what’s really there – what’s all around you.  Life and people and the rest of the world.

I’ve learned to live how alot of people in the bible seemed to live: take it as it comes.  And appreciate what you have.  Maybe alot of people around you are focusing on something like your bare finger, but you know that’s not who you are.  You are everything God has made you, today, right now.  Look in the mirror – that’s you, sweetheart. 

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