Personal Effects

[good4somethingbum]

for a country gal...Personal EffectsAfter my evening rounds, I thumbed through Modern BrideHad a brown bag supper, and hoped for a quiet nightThen I heard ol’ Blue Eyes, in a room down the hallFound Mrs. Wilson dreamin’, of a distant, tender waltzSome records n photos, and a small cedar chestGarment bag in her closet, were only her personal effectsWhen I turned the music off, she awoke with a coughAnd told me what that song meant to her dreamsShe had been a nurse herself, pointed to pictures on a shelfOf a bride and her handsome marineShe showed me a wine stain, on that wedding dressAnd said those old mem’ries, were her fav’rite personal effectsWorld War 2 was ragin’, he was a scared young man drunk on wine he wore a wedding gown, to his draft examBut they knew he was fakin’, and made a Marine of himHe lost a leg near Paris, rather than save his own skinAnd he always laughed about, wearin’ that stupid dressHis medal was wrapped in it, among his personal effectsHe layed in that bed in pain, she never heard him complainAnd little by little he won her heartThey wed in some church in France, she held him up as they dancedTo that Sinatra song in a midnight barShe finished her story, and had to get some restI saw that our mem’ries, are the greatest personal effectsWhen Mrs. Wilson passed away, no one came to claimThings she left in that lonely roomSo in a church outside town, I wore that wedding gownAnd we waltzed to that Ol’ Blue Eyes tuneI tell my children the story, of the wine stain on the dressTo show them that mem’ries, are the greatest personal effects©2007 Robert George