The Inactive File

The Inactive File

They're alphabetical
But it would be more instructive
To categorize.

These four I lost to age,
One to heart attack,
Three to cancer
Two to the midnight squeal of tires.

Eight because I failed,
Fled town,
And was too ashamed to call.

And you. You!
You I lost
because I never learned
how to love.

Johnny

In 1852 the letter came. He said
"Things didn't go the way I dreamed,
but they're looking up. I've stopped drinking.
Soon I'll be coming home."

When she was old they asked her
why she would give a tramp a meal
and let him sleep in the barn. She said
"I always told myself that maybe somebody
did that for my Johnny."