To a 4-H Summer Assistant

Do you remember that teenage girl
You talked to years ago?
Instead of oyster, you saw pearl –
She was a tough one though!
She pushed against all that you said
When you tried to reaffirm
That she had value –No! Instead
She tried to worm and worm
Her way away from your kind words
Why didn’t you give up?
Why not say, This is for the birds?!
But no, you filled her cup —

And now my life reads like a long and wondrous book
If he wants to know the good he did, dear God, let him look

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This is in response to the W³ prompt for this week — to write a memory poem. Here are the instructions:

• Imagine a person from an old memory looking in on you through an open window;
  • You’d all but forgotten about this person, but today their presence has given rise to this memory;
  • What do you see? What’s going on?
• Write this as a Memory Poem:
  • Purge this memory out of your system; allude to the memory; banish the memory; 
• Poem length: 100 – 300 words;
• The poem must end with these words: “Let him/her look”

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I don’t know if I did the whole memory poem thing correctly. First, it’s only 98 words.

But — true story — in my early teens, I was a pretty mixed-up kid. I was part of a perfect family, but I was pretty less than perfect. One summer, when I was making all sorts of bad choices, these two guys came from Cornell to spend the summer working in our county with the 4-H program. One of them started a summer band.

Indirectly, I suppose, music saved me. I got involved with the summer band and then got roped into other activities with a different group of kids and a more wholesome focus.

I think I was 14 years old. I remember swearing at the one guy in a long tirade about I-don’t-know-what and he just took it. He didn’t scold me. He didn’t kick me out. He just took it.

And continued to treat me nicely.

Of course, I didn’t keep in touch with those guys. I was a kid. They were Cornell students. At the end of the summer, they went back to Cornell. Honestly, I can’t even remember the band guy’s last name.

But, what a difference he made in my life!