"You just do whatever" The stumbled out of you Like a drunk leaving a bar looking for a fresh new call You were not a man of But did your best to advice You offered me "You can't do whatever" And I what you meant You that whatever I choose to do, I must not be aimless I must not simply spin this and go wherever I stick my finger Because 71% of the time I will end up in the And if I do end up in the ocean I can't do whatever, Better to swim
"You can't do whatever"
The conversation after you asked me about heaven Told me that you thought heaven would be to each person And that person would have their own version of it Then asked me what would be
I was so scared to you, "I don't one" But you nodded head, as if confirming a suspicion school had me of a belief in some stories You "you don't have to beleive what I believe, its enough to be good. Be good" I will. I will think about your Your heaven be the same haircut, forever It would be a stick a dog and some A lawn that always needs A six-pack of pills in those short and your real teeth back Because your dentures could never master that bottle opening trick you to do The first time you tried it with dentures I had nightmares for a Because I though mouth had fallen off Your heaven, would be Austria the war And after you met grandma It be head cheese sandwiches and blood sausages Other meats that would ensure you would never ever have to entertain dinner guests And I would never be in danger of my lunch stolen heaven, would be a stash of Problems that you could fix with hands I you tried to fix everything with your hands I remember the days I the bandages They looked like blankets, as if your knuckles had all gone off to bed Walls that looked like said something to get under your skin And where suddenly to pay for it I know you an angry man Finger tips like spent shells, bleeding smoke cocktails of gunpowder and singed plastic You had what people would call, "a temper" But you loved a joke, if it was on you Something that would crack open the walls of your chest and let the tickle your heart Just enough to let you know it was there You didn't always laugh, always smile You did keep a mental ledger of what you called "send flowers list" I remember thinking it was a thank you to those who got you But learned the after my grandmother added a thin layer of sand to your sandwiches Because you refused to your own lunch for work You told me about it when you me up from school that day You said "Grandma made the send flowers list" And I "Because you love her so much?" And you said "Because I'm gonna her" Of course you version of kill meant two months before winter, Having a seamstress take in of her coats a few inches So on the first day she one She with the sudden tightness And you stood there smiling said "Honey, I love you no matter how big you get" She did not And managed to staple your back into a straight face When she told all of friends at work that you had to move into the spare room Because you couldn't stop at night You often asked me "If I had a heaven, what it be like?" And I told you that for such a small word, if, is just too big to my belief around I not bend to the hypothetical But now that I would've Even if it was just to your mind in the belief I could be headed to that other place you believed in I would tell you now how my is here It was here, in the warfare of your relationship with Grandma volleys were traded back and forth Like hockey cards between who didn't care what the stats meant My heaven would have been someone in grade five finally willing to trade me their fruit up For my tin of My hell was "why?" Why would you give me sardines for lunch My heaven make you laugh Cause I get the you didn't get to do that very much Through my hell, the night terrors and bloody noses Through the eyes black, bruised back, sneak attack, nap sack and coat hijacks You did your best to seal up the cracks in my armour and made my here I would have loved to have you laugh more To make your send list just once So I you now my if If there is a Mine have a post office And I send letters to yours The first letter read "Hell's not so bad, they pretty let you do whatever"