The Complete Family

We walked down the block through the dead trees.

You were smiling.

And I was smiling too.

From the time we were little.

You were always taller, thinner.

You were a kind of lanky Matt Dillon.

I was strong but awkward.

And born with an armour of imagination.

I loved music.

And so did you.

But you loved those loud guitars.

And venom.

That venom with a lost angry sadness.

While I lived in the sadness.

I remember Roy Orbison on an AM radio.

All falsetto and loneliness.

That day was so sharp it cut through glass and warmed the carpet underneath me.

You were out with your friends.

Your best friend's name was Ray.

He's in jail now.

A few weeks ago you were sentenced as well.

I sat in my room still surrounded by a sad song thinking.

Thirty years.

It's been thirty years.

And you're going to be in there for thirty years.

Now I remember that day you had just gotten out of rehab.

And I was happy to see you.

Happy to hope.

That from that point forward.

All would be better.

And I was proud of you.

And we were going home.

The complete family.

A complete family.

Just you and me.

Mom and Dad.

A complete family.