Melody of Home
To my brother on his departure to college
Cotton candy colored skies
Early to bed, early to rise
Fixin’ to melt into the bay
Suggestin’ the end to yet another day
Forty five minute never ending goodbyes
Chocolate, cherry, chestnut pies
Stretchin’ seas of southern snow
That summer smell of grass just mowed
Friday nights the high school game
Teenage boys and their four year fame
Tractor travelled gravel roads
At 5 AM the rooster crows
Right up the road or just down the street
An hour drive pendin’ on who ya meet
Sippin’ on lemonade, “Well I declare”
Sighs the Old Magnolia in her front porch rockin’ chair
“Ya’ll come back real soon, ya hear”
A friendly neighbor always near
Time to get out, no time to be naïve
Hafta see the world, believe, achieve,
Here comes that chance
To run wild and roam
The future - a dance
Set to the melody of home.
I’m not really sure if I need to explain the above poem. It’s not very difficult. Probably more corny than anything else. Basically, it is a poem mostly describing where I am from. Each line depicts a different detail. The end of the poem is just a suggestion that urges one not to forget his or her roots, no matter where the future takes you. As to some of the particulars, “Right up the road” and “Just down the street” are phrases we use to describe distance when asking directions. They can either mean a few blocks or 15 miles depending on who you talk to and where you are going. “Southern snow” is often what people call cotton fields in fall. An “Old Magnolia” is a very elderly, elegant, well respected southern woman who has been pampered and taken care of with the utmost attention her entire life. The other bold words are simply contractions that I just find myself and the people of my area constantly saying as if the real word doesn’t exist. Also, in case you didn’t catch it – alliteration is my favorite literary device when dealing with poetry, so there’s a little of that thrown in.
To my brother on his departure to college
Cotton candy colored skies
Early to bed, early to rise
Fixin’ to melt into the bay
Suggestin’ the end to yet another day
Forty five minute never ending goodbyes
Chocolate, cherry, chestnut pies
Stretchin’ seas of southern snow
That summer smell of grass just mowed
Friday nights the high school game
Teenage boys and their four year fame
Tractor travelled gravel roads
At 5 AM the rooster crows
Right up the road or just down the street
An hour drive pendin’ on who ya meet
Sippin’ on lemonade, “Well I declare”
Sighs the Old Magnolia in her front porch rockin’ chair
“Ya’ll come back real soon, ya hear”
A friendly neighbor always near
Time to get out, no time to be naïve
Hafta see the world, believe, achieve,
Here comes that chance
To run wild and roam
The future - a dance
Set to the melody of home.
I’m not really sure if I need to explain the above poem. It’s not very difficult. Probably more corny than anything else. Basically, it is a poem mostly describing where I am from. Each line depicts a different detail. The end of the poem is just a suggestion that urges one not to forget his or her roots, no matter where the future takes you. As to some of the particulars, “Right up the road” and “Just down the street” are phrases we use to describe distance when asking directions. They can either mean a few blocks or 15 miles depending on who you talk to and where you are going. “Southern snow” is often what people call cotton fields in fall. An “Old Magnolia” is a very elderly, elegant, well respected southern woman who has been pampered and taken care of with the utmost attention her entire life. The other bold words are simply contractions that I just find myself and the people of my area constantly saying as if the real word doesn’t exist. Also, in case you didn’t catch it – alliteration is my favorite literary device when dealing with poetry, so there’s a little of that thrown in.
