A PIECE OF THE FAMILY PUZZLE

Oh my god! I am finding my family, I lost them forever,

Were they kept from me through the years, another side?

They do live, exist in another time zone, through much of my time,

Since a time when I was so young, I have not seen these blood

Relatives again.

Distance and time take away what can never be replaced, lost years,
and some family,

They went about their days just as we out here did, cheated, I feel,
But here I am.

A piece of the family puzzle has been found with some effort
And wanting,

Still far in the distance, as we have become a little closer, one
Day at a time.

A family has grown back there in the Eastern snow. I want to go,

A lifetime ago, I did walk down streets, stand in the snow
Where they still do.

We are separated by choice and decisions made a long time ago,

A piece of the family puzzle has been located, like a treasure
Discovered.

Lost between the East and the West, wherever did those days go?

                          Keith Garrett

                                              250 YEARS,  1776

We are free,  what happened so long ago like a dream,

Let me take you back in time to a land so far away.

A King’s army, a tyrant who ruled back in England,

Many ships traveled across the sea to take our shores.

The militia and army were ready to fight for our freedom,

In 1776, Redcoats and Dragoons approached our shores,

Families sacrificed, and young men died on this American land.

It’s been 250 years since we fought and defeated the British army,

Ghosts of many patriots wander the land; in their graves, they are free.

Keith Garrett

Far between sundown’s finish, and midnight’s

Broken toll

We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashin’

As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds

Seemin’ to be the chimes of freedom flashin’

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight

Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight

And for each and every underdog, soldier in the night

And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’

Even though a cloud’s white curtain, in a far off corner flashed

And the hypnotic, splattered mist was slowly liftin’

Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones

Condemned to drift or else be kept from driftin’

Tolling for the searching ones on their speechless, seeking trail

For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale

And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail

And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’

Starry-eyed and laughin’, as i recall when we were caught

Kept by no track of hours for they hang suspended

As we listened one last time and we watched with one last look

Spellbound and swallowed till the tollin’ ended

Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed

For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones and worse

And for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe

And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’