MOUNT YOUR HORSES

More than two sides, men will die throughout the south,

Raise your swords, fire your guns, will this be your last rising sun.?

You fight for what, willing to die for a cause, do you know for what,

Is it really civil, this war between the states, what did you gain.?

Mount your horses!, draw your swords, ride into the devil’s woods,

Uniforms of difference, colors that separate which side you’re on.

Homes would be burned, this battle among you not on distant land,

Neighbor against neighbor, brothers, and cousins fighting hand to hand.

Mount your horses!, ride between the darkness and trees, cold it may be,

Blood against blood, the innocent will surely be a victim and die in the dust.

Cannon fire, bodies of men, women, and children scattered across the states,

When it’s over who will remember what this was all about, blood spilled for what.?

Keith Garrett

MOTHER

Thank you, mother, for the life I have,

Not a memory have I when you first Gave me life.

You saw that I was not hungry, held me close in the night,

Dressed me and made sure that everything was alright.

You listened as I spoke my first words,

Helped as I learned to crawl and walk.

You rocked me to sleep singing a song,

Were there when I was hurt, taught me right from wrong.

If I did not listen then shame on me,

If I did not learn from you, such a tragedy.

Thank god you’re still my mother,

Sometimes taken for granted you see,

You are my mother and that’s why I’m me.

Keith Garrett

MOTHER, DON’T LET ME DIE!

I’m a child, only a child who lies here under rubble, dying,

This I did not ask for but fate rests in gods powerful hands.

I’m afraid fore I am in such pain, why! oh why must I die,?

The earth exploded with a thundering sound all around.

Lord as I lie here it is that I think of my mother, oh! mother,

Please take this from me, the fear and the pain, I’m coming.

Mother!, don’t let me die, I need you tonight at my side,

Tears run down this little girls face, mother, don’t let me die.

If I must go then please to heaven make it so, let me go,

Mother!, Mother!, please don’t cry, mother, don’t let me die.

Keith Garrett

MORTAL, I AM

To walk on water is an amazing thing I can not do,

Flying across the sky, never will I fly, a thought from my mind.

Through walls of solid never will my physical body walk,

I have not the power to raise my hands and change the world.

To part the sea is a wonder that I’ve not yet seen,

Fire I can not make rain from the sky, no not I.

I have not the ability to hide from pain,

Fear is an emotion that lives in the human being.

I am not god for it is that I may bleed and do,

I breathe the air but no guarantee of a tomorrow.

Mortal I am, for now here I’ll stand and walk this land,

Older I’ll get as surely I will not live forever in this place.

One day I’ll die and pray that my new home will be beyond the sky.

Keith Garrett

BILLY MITCHELL

Today in my mind but yesterday was a long time ago,

I think of you, a place and a school, I was a little boy.

It was nineteen sixty seven, Kindergarten and you,

The first day of school is recalled in my mind, a boy I saw cry,

His name Was Cotero, I think of those clowns on a wall.

Are they still there? I wonder, swingsets and young friends,

A boy named Grover, Duck, Duck, goose, Graham crackers and milk.

Nap time, I remember the cabinets with cartoonish pictures,

Reading time was the best, Fold out books, three dimensional stories,

Hansel and Gretel, all the best, I was there until nineteen seventy.

Hard to remember the teacher’s names, Mrs. Scott back in second grade,

I think it was Mr. Kelly, Principal with dark hair and glasses,

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt was a song in the Cafeteria.

After school and on the weekends you could play games,

Carroms, maze, and more, Billy Mitchell, when once I was a child.

Friends, Jeff, James, Jimmy, and Alan, wherever they are, I remember,

There was a bell back then known as the freeze bell, stand very still.

We all have our childhood, our memories, a town to call home, then we roam,

Billy Mitchell, I find myself wandering back to you, memories of a school.

Keith Garrett

BILLY MITCHELL

Today in my mind but yesterday was a long time ago,

I think of you, a place and a school, I was a little boy.

It was nineteen sixty seven, Kindergarten and you,

The first day of school is recalled in my mind, a boy I saw cry,

His name Was Cotero, I think of those clowns on a wall.

Are they still there? I wonder, swingsets and young friends,

A boy named Grover, Duck, Duck, goose, Graham crackers and milk.

Nap time, I remember the cabinets with cartoonish pictures,

Reading time was the best, Fold out books, three dimensional stories,

Hansel and Gretel, all the best, I was there until nineteen seventy.

Hard to remember the teacher’s names, Mrs. Scott back in second grade,

I think it was Mr. Kelly, Principal with dark hair and glasses,

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt was a song in the Cafeteria.

After school and on the weekends you could play games,

Carroms, maze, and more, Billy Mitchell, when once I was a child.

Friends, Jeff, James, Jimmy, and Alan, wherever they are, I remember,

There was a bell back then known as the freeze bell, stand very still.

We all have our childhood, our memories, a town to call home, then we roam,

Billy Mitchell, I find myself wandering back to you, memories of a school.

FEELINGS OF FALL

There’s a change of seasons, it’s in the air,

The night turns to a crisp Autumn cold.

The shadows appear early as the days become less,

A chill comes to settle here in the west.

The leaves change of color before they float gently to the ground,

Not a sound do they make as they touch where they’re bound.

From dawn until dusk swiftly travels the sun,

The moon shows its face sooner as early the day’s done.

The fog starts to move along the shore,

Now that it’s Fall, Summer no more.

These things that we call, feelings of Fall.

Keith Garrett