I’M GETTING OLDER

I first opened my eyes, once tiny and bright to this world,

A memory I do hold but remember not as I was a baby.

Pictures of my life are few compared to the window of my mind,

Once only a child, things I knew were also few, children that played

With this child are lost with time, always in my mind.

The world seems smaller as my life has spread further with the passing days,

I’m getting older, once I was a young teenager moving ever so fast.

Birthday to birthday comes a new number pinned to my aging soul,

Grateful am I with a much appreciated thank you and love of god

That he has given me life this long, I hope and pray that one day I’ll

Be forever remembered and once in a while thought of by you.

I’m getting older, maybe a touch wiser, possibly a better me,

I’m getting older, remember who I am, my name is Keith,

I am a mortal man living in this gift layed in my hand.

Keith Garrett

I’M GETTING OLDER TOO

I once saw children as I was a child, I hear them now,

The sounds from their voices are heard through my life.

It was so long ago and yet not that far away as I sit and think,

Those friends, all the little boys, and girls are scattered everywhere.

I still am me, inside and all that I am remains here, thinking and living,

A constant cycle as I was a boy and saw around me the older ones that walked.

Teenagers, parents of friends that grew older as soon I and you would get older too,

I now have children and nephews who are older than I once was as a child.

Older now am I than a father who once played with me as a young boy,

I’m getting older too, as we travel the world, as time moves along,

Could it be in the scheme of things that I again know you and you know me,

Maybe we don’t realize this because we don’t remember one another’s names.

Keith Garrett

I’M FREEZING!

Cloudy and dark, as the storm rolls on in,

Quiet is the morning, soon it begins.

I’m outside in cold, cold air, beneath the sky,

I go about my work, a coldness comes and the temperature drops.

The rain slowly starts to fall, I become wet with cold,

I’m freezing! I’m freezing! water drops upon the ground.

My feet are wet, my hands sting in the air,

The rain keeps on falling, falling everywhere.

Keith Garrett

I’M ALWAYS WITH ME

It starts in the morning when I take a look in the mirror,

There I am looking back at me, our morning begins as one.

We do all things together so I’m never without company,

I work in the yard, things are complete when I am with me.

I walk down the street, I’m never behind or in front, I hear my feet,

When I dream I’m always there in bed sleeping with me.

Whatever I do and wherever I go I’m always with me, this is so,

I’m always with me, I follow the road, my shadow and me.

Keith Garrett

IF YOU HAD NO TOMORROW

Would the birds be a sound singing in your ear,

The mountains not so much appreciated, would their beauty appear.

Would you see the sky in a different way,

Things would become precious for only a day.

The taste of a peach would rest in your mouth,

No time to fight as the hourglass runs out.

The wind against your face, the oceans spray,

Your feet in the sand, to loved ones, what would you say.?

If you had no tomorrow, if you could do one last thing,

Would you thank the lord for giving you everything.?

Keith Garrett

ILLUSION

Different names, faces that change,

Hurt feelings, love’s a hard game to play.

Winners and losers, each day the clock ticks away,

Disagreements that come to no end, words from lips, regrets.

Thoughts are different from different minds,

People change as the days drift in time.

Is there a value as discussion appears as fighting,

Angry faces and hurtful sayings aren’t kind.

What’s an illusion, something not there,

A trick to our minds that love’s in the air.

What once was is no longer now,

Was it ever there as we count the suns that go down.

A memory is a thought placed in our mind,

Illusion or reality as the days pass on by.

Keith Garrett

IF NO ONE COULD SEE

How would it be, what are your thoughts if no one could see,

Lights are on, the nights are dark, what’s the difference without sight.

There would be no color except that of black, Imagination was all you had,

How could you be a racist if your eyes were always closed, who would know?

If no one could see would the world be a better place for all to be,

We could learn to walk in peace, we would never have had to read.

We could speak and have much still to complain about,

We would not see what horror lives beyond our reach.

If no one could see then the beauty that lives would be a mystery,

There are several thoughts to these questions that I seek, tell me what you believe.

Keith Garrett

I’LL LEAVE THE LIGHT ON

I remember the day when you went away,

Your bags packed, you’ve grown so fast, on your way.

A choice has been made, I’ll stand by your side,

What you believe in your heart is the way you must fight.

Far away the war has not stopped,

I’ll leave the light on until you come home.

I’ve written these letters for fifty years now,

Missing in action is what was said to me about you.

You’re still my love, what has become of you,?

My life is less as you have not come back.

I’ve held on to hope, a prayer every night,

After fifty years the reality of not seeing you hides from my mind.

I’ll leave the light on as I have since the day you drove away,

I’ll leave the light on until my last day.

Keith Garrett

IF I WERE A GHOST

To be not anymore alive, not yet ready to touch the sky,

Wherever my spirit and soul must go, not ready to say goodbye.

If I were a ghost then what might my new world be like, some thoughts,

Faces and those whom I love I could see as they now can not until eternity see me.

Their words for me are heard as they know not that I am still around, I am here,

Not as I once was with body or identity but mind, spirit, and soul are together today.

Without the physical ability as once possessed my challenge of this new existence is now,

Remembering how I could pick things up and communicate seem now taken for granted.

If I were a ghost I would never again feel pain, no food would be needed to sustain,

Some good and some bad, a situation with feelings of sadness,

If I were a ghost I think it would be time to let myself go.

Keith Garrett

1969

I was a child in 1969, I had not a clue of the world,

I knew of certain things, those of which I lived through.

Riding my bike and a deadly Halloween night, that’s right,

I remember all that I did as a kid, a lifetime ago and a family,

Vietnam was a reality and I was protected by my childish world.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, Clint Eastwood was the man,

Raindrops keep falling on my head, Simon and Garfunkel were grand.

Scooby Doo and all of the colorful cartoons that I knew, I think of you,

Baseball with the miracle Mets, Bill Russell, and the champion Celtics,

Joe Namath with his Guarantee, the Jets beat the Colts, Charles Manson, and history.

The Innocence of the Brady Bunch, walk on the moon, Led Zeppelin and a tune,

1969 was the year when love and innocence were mixed with my day.

Keith Garrett