I’ll tell you Em, in all honesty,
and I’m speaking for all of us, that
those who love you, and care for you,
will never deter the flow of your choices,
or wag a finger when you smear your
special silliness in lipstick rhymes,
nor will they judge you when
your desire for
marital wholeness
is overshadowed by
an inability to achieve it…
.
We all see in you
what we too,
by choice,
become at times…
Something each of us
struggles with, in sundry ways,
an obsession to stride the meridian
where light casts shadows on an artfully
sculpted emotional prison…
.
NOT NOW – NOT EVER, will
any of us justify all the corrupt paths
pride takes us on – or the bitter destitute
ugly things some people adorn their lives with…
.
Don't you know,
it’s what most of us
see in others too at first,
what we don't like about them,
so we too remain flawed, by choice,
just like you, and often can never move
past our prideful self-centeredness to deal
with all the discontent festering in us still
about being wounded or misconstrue d….
.
I guess what I’m trying to say, is that
betrayal can force anyone into isolation, and
that harboring the wounds of it can be like a wet cloak,
heavy and smothering, and that our shortcomings do not
represent who we are, they only remind us, that some of
what [remains in us] is fallow and incomplete…. Emily,
.
you made it through, intact, and stronger for it.
We all did. And you were one of the reasons why…
.
© richard lloyd cederberg
2024
THE PORTRAYAL SERIES: Poetic insights (good and bad) concerning my immediate family, and old friends (alive or dead). This series will also address certain of the actors, artists, musicians, and writers I worked with in college, or professionally, who were all influential (in one way or another) in shaping the man I am today.
A NEW RACE OF HuMANS
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My uncle left my aunt with 3 children and 2 children from an earlier marriage in 1962. His trucking business was failing and his World War II hero status was wearing thin. The family rediscovered him in 2005 when a private investigator for the barmaid he ran off with's children found her 2 years after she died in the house that she and my uncle lived in, untouched after given to a neighbor.
My aunt was a schoolteacher, declared bankruptcy for his business, couldn't get the FBI involved in the case and persevered, eventually having boyfriends but never remarrying. All 3 children did well, but the 2nd son from his first wife also abandoned his wife and child. Last I heard he had dementia, 2 years older than I am.
Ron
There was no expectations from my old friends- what so ever about one another- souls that are from the Father's mercy in such beauty. I treasure deep in my soul forever...Thanks for this heartfelt quill..
In Christ to you & Michelle,
~j