LILLIE MAE

I would never say that Lillie-Mae

Was what you might describe as a raving beauty.

Yet, she did have something very special

Because almost everybody was a friend of hers.

I suppose I most likely loved her, but

Only in the same way that I loved my sister.

Actually, she was a sort of sister.

She was one of the very few girls I talked to.

The last time I ever actually saw her

Was going up along side Steve and Thomas’s alley.

We called it that, but I don’t think

It was actually officially named so.

Unfortunately, she was nursing a broken heart.

She had fallen in love with a married man

Not knowing he was married until

He dropped her like she might be poison.

She was crying very softly as I neared.

So, I offered my shoulder and arm

On which she could unburden her battered heart,

Breaking out in heart-rendering sobs as I held her.

Some five minutes later, we started to walk

And to talk until she was finally in control.

I gave her a kiss and a big, tight hug and left.

Shortly after, she left for Wisconsin where

She became an old maid schoolteacher.

But she became such a top notch one,

That many of her children never forgot her.

She is gone now, yet I still remember her.