CHAPTER 1
The Meeting of Two Souls
A single rose at introduction,
A tender kiss behind the scene,
Dinner and the best of champagne,
A tender touch that drew our souls together, like water to land.
The electricity gave a full current when you held my hand.
Our bodies unaware of our souls
Uniting as one before our secret affair.
So mystical it had seemed to be;
As you looked in my eyes and saw through me
The soul you've been searching for across the sea.
The sparkling lit fireplace gave warmth and a glow.
We held each other; there was no place we wanted to go.
The meeting of souls can be deep
As we held each other and fell asleep.
Men, or Whatever You Call Them
Men, boys, males —
Whatever you call them.
Big, small, medium;
What the hell: they're all the same.
When you tried one,
You've tried them all.
Hurting a woman's feelings is what they call having a ball
They use your mind and your body if they can.
And when you realize it, they don't call, and they stand you up
once again ...
You stop and regroup and say never, no more.
You get older, and this game starts to become a bore!
The Spirit of a California Man
Free spirit, free spirit is what you are,
Never staying too long or going too far.
Like the winds that blow, you fly by your life,
Never stopping to see stress or strife.
So light and soft, at times you seem,
But moving with the ray of light or a beam.
Stop sometimes, and let me see
The free spirited man that you appear to be.
Sitting
As I sit here day after day,
I look for happiness and peace in just some small way.
The world seems to be rushing every day.
Stop moving so fast; slow down, now and then, in some kind of way.
We all will end up at the same old place,
Some six feet of dirt with a stone for a face.
So what's the hurry?
The hustle and bustle, to and fro.
Slow down, take your time, you will end up below.
The Good Ole Days
When I was just a sweet young girl, about sixteen and a half,
I knew those were the real good old days; wasn't nothin' better than.
I said one day a man would come and sweep me off my feet,
And surely one day he would come along.
But he wasn't mine to keep.
Oh ... the good old days are memories.
Oh, the good old days are sweet.
Just always keep in the back of your mind that
A good man's hard to keep.
As time moved on and I had fun, or so I heard it said,
My grandma said, slow down, young girl,
Or you will end up dead.
She said one day the right man will come, and it'll take you by surprise,
But if you don't slow down, young girl,
He'll be gone right before your eyes.
But the good ole days are memories,
And the good ole days are sweet.
But never forget I told you that a good man is hard to keep.
The J.C. Spirit
It took me over like a natural high.
I wondered what was happening to me and why.
I remembered I heard Grandma say,
"The Lord will bless and keep your soul one day."
Grandma said, "Just trust in him,
And he will shine a light on you
When yours grows dim."
She said, "God can lift you up even when there's no food
And an empty cup."
And praise God, Grandma's words are true.
I've been down and out, and the Lord has pulled me through.
If you've never heard of these words from this grandma of mine,
Read again these lines of mine.
Praise God, the Lord divine.
Now to all, I give my grandma's words to you.
Trust in God; I'm an example of what God can do.
Now I'm thirty-one and excited about this feeling.
Not by alcohol, a disco light, or a limelight life.
I'm batting a thousand through Jesus Christ.
Not wealthy, not a star in movies or on TV,
But God has held, loved, and taken care of me.
Someone for Me
I asked God to send me someone kind and true,
And he sent me you.
Someone to have and someone to hold,
Someone who cared to shelter me from the cold.
And he sent you.
I asked God to send me someone to make me laugh and smile
At the sunshine all day long.
And bless and behold, you came along.
But there's such a gap between you and me.
Sometimes I wonder if once again
I'll be lonely ...
I want to enjoy the rest of my life with you,
But you, my loved one, must want it too.
Our time on this earth is short, I must say.
That's why it's important for us to enjoy each day.
Working for the City
You must live in the city is what your rules say.
I'm afraid to go in and out of my apartment each and every day.
I'm a single parent, trying to make it on my own.
It's bad enough the president has taken away the dream of owning
a home.
I would like to live in a clean and decent environment
Just like you.
Except by myself, not a guard or two.
Questions they ask: are you married? is one; if not, no need to fill
out the application.
Look at the apartments and condos they give.
Fabulous with luxury in the suburbs to live.
But I need my job because jobs are hard to come by and few,
And I want my child to see more than just an alley view.
When you raise taxes and shuffle the budget awhile,
Think of us single women and our children.
Now, as you end your day, as we do too.
Think if the shoes I walk in belonged to you.
Standing at the meat counters is like, looking at jewelry diamond
counter.
Picking up and then putting back because it's too high.
It's trying to survive and not stand there and cry.
Turning on the TV, looking at others' points of view.
You start turning the channel to 7, 5, and 2.
Then you cut it off because now you're really blue.
You get up in the morning, wanting to buy a paper
To see what it was last night that they said.
But you don't want to read that you lost your job while you were
in bed.
Now as you end your day, as we all do,
Stop and think if the shoes I walked in belonged to you.
Mayor Washington
A smile that takes you back home,
A man who is noble, like an emperor of Rome,
A man who seems gentle and makes you want to touch.
But this man has so much success, just so much!
There are many secret powers he has within.
But only those who have depth of feeling know about them.
Some people played his intelligence cheaply, and that was their mistake.
Mayor Washington showed them all he was one they could not break.
Let what he has gone through show us all;
Let all men stand up and be proud.
Give respect to the big and the small.
Let's respect one another; that's the least we can do.
Look back and remember the turmoil Mayor Washington went
through.
My Buddy
We came such a long way.
Like sisters we always were.
The love, the kindness, the tender loving care
You wrapped around me like fur.
I always felt warm and safe with you close to me.
But now you show me little affection.
Like a bare branch on a tree, its cold winds blowing through me.
In a very special way, I stand in the shadows, waiting to hear you
say the words that were said when we were young:
We will always be together, forever and a day.
Nigerian Love
A plant sitting in a cold clay pot, still...
