I'm Still Here (from Boyhood Tales)

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jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

0 posted 2015-04-15 09:23 PM

I'm Still Here
(from Boyhood Tales)

I'm still here, I mailed,
still the same,
chaste, powerfully in love,
just as when I left,
just as when the Navy
whisked me
to the Pacific's surface
to live on an island
of three-thousand men,
hundred's of planes,
a lust to be home.

I'm still here,
although your letters are missed,
and I fear the words of my friends
are true;
you're not as faithful as I,
have chosen a path
divergent from mine, and I,
on a ship of three-thousand men,
am alone
in an ocean replete with hearts
that have died –
death
as surely
as those at the bottom of the sea.

I'm still here, I mailed . . .

I'm still here.

Waiting

© wesley james beard, jr.
september 2009

Note: This one actually is about me (and of course many I knew back then, married and not) - Back in the early '60's, in the South China Sea, USS Hornet (air craft carrier) - received my first (and only) Dear John letter. Sucked!

(Please don't assume everything I write is based on my personal life...)

latearrival
Member Ascendant

since 2003-03-21

Posts 5499
Florida

1 posted 2015-04-16 01:45 AM

I can well imagine how hard that last letter from her was to take in. Best , Jo

Lori Grosser Rhoden
Member Patricius

since 2009-10-10

Posts 10202
Fair to middlin' of nowhere

2 posted 2015-04-16 01:37 PM

Jimmy,
Breaking up is hard to do, as the song goes. I can't begin to imagine the pain under those circumstances. I guess the only consolation is that you were on a ship full of very sympathetic souls. And it made for a very good write! ~L

Rex Allen McCoy
Member Elite

since 2000-01-30

Posts 2863
Sippin a Timmy's in London

3 posted 2015-04-16 06:04 PM

Did a stint in the Canadian Army, early 70s. I was lucky, the letters kept coming. Others weren't as lucky we all felt it when one of our buddies was down and out. I can really feel your thoughts in this piece... Well done

suthern

Member Seraphic

since 1999-07-29

Posts 20723
Louisiana

4 posted 2015-04-17 01:48 PM

Too many Dear John letters have reached and broken waiting hearts. Excellent write!

Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis

since 2007-09-16

Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California

5 posted 2015-04-18 01:48 AM

Must have been a sad and lonely time.

Ida

Michael

Moderator

Member Rara Avis

since 1999-08-13

Posts 7666
California

6 posted 2015-04-18 03:00 PM

That's a really lousy feeling when you know something's up yet still can't let go of all hope because you haven't actually read the words yet. Something I wouldn't wish upon anyone.

Michael

jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

7 posted 2015-04-21 09:04 AM

One of those lessons learned, you know? I mean, about the fallacy in the line . . . "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" . . . definitely have to have more going for you than that... and in the teenage years ... Good Luck!! lol

j.

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