Amnesia620

My work I did for Writing Challenge #8:

- The picture is black/white photo of an elderly couple, sittin' on the front porch. -


"What's that Ma? Hmm?
Huh? Who? What d'ja say?"
An old couple many years young,
and this funny game they play.

"Howdy there, friendly stranger,
kindly visiting to hear stories of old,
on this porch where our time's spent,"
the place these tales were first told.

"In my day, when I was youngin',"
the man said, forgetting the rest,
beware of lifetime's true tempo,
as it often erases memory's best.

Always walkin' uphill barefoot,
to a schoolhouse in the snow,
later generations roll their eyes,
to the fantastic stories of long ago.

"Now we ain't as young,
as we once use'ta be,"
the old man's hearing's gone,
his aging wife can barely see.

"Now, Jonathan, hush up,
'cause yer mumblin' again,
as my Pa woulda once said,
a quiet man is worth ten."

"Eh, Sarah? What's that now?"
Sarah looks over his way,
his deafness gets annoying,
her expression seemed to say.

"Sometimes, one of our sons,
visits with family in tow,
but youngin's and their energy,
for them, we move too slow."

"Both of our boys' are businessmen,
and they buy lots of nice things,
givin' us new watches or socks,
soft fingers display shiny gold rings."

"Our girls' all have forgotten,
the hardships endured of yore,
avoidin' us 'cause we embarrass,
makin' the truth easier to ignore."

A great time was had that day,
many stories they eagerly shared,
two elderly people were befriended,
by one kind stranger who cared.

In the moment the snapshot was taken,
during that unique and special day,
possessing a story all it's own,
precious words forever frozen this way.

Today, the stranger heard Sarah's news,
the picture the stranger endearly kept,
Johnathan's funeral was held last year,
last night Sarah died while she slept.

The stranger had become a loyal friend,
a vision that life's tempo is unable to erase,
strength empowered by the purity of love,
reflectively held in a kind strangers face.

And as we age and grey with time,
once a kind stranger, now I'm a friend,
friendship helps our old hearts to thrive,
so that their lessons live on without end.

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For example, I find that a lot of college girls are barbie doll carbon copies with few differences...Sadly, they're dumb, ditzy, immature, snotty, fake, or they are the gravitational center to orbiting drama. - Amnesia620