Things happen in unpredictable ways. Such occurrences can turn your life upside down.

 

You believe the past is behind you. Then something arrives in the mail . . .

 

 

With Postage Due

 

My father heard rumors

that contest riches

were coming his way.

Taken aback

by this great news,

he didn’t know what to say.

So he got his gun

and waited

by the front door

for this wonderful day.

Our family’s protection plan in place,

he looked through the peephole,

for the deliverer’s face.

 

That was six weeks ago,

and we’re still as poor as can be.

But our father hasn’t left the front door

and sleeps on a cot, not so peacefully.

Tremors are present,

in both his hands.

His whole body shakes uncontrollably,

and no one understands.

The pressure has driven him

to distraction,

and even Mom,

dressed in a sexy nightgown,

doesn’t appear

to be an attraction.

 

I’m only ten,

and what is happening

leaves me confused.

My eight-year-old brother,

on the other hand,

seems quite amused.

Why, is beyond me—

a complete mystery.

But I’ve recorded my thoughts

on paper to preserve our history.

 

Now twenty years later,

I began to practice law.

My first case involved my brother,

who I still adore.

Saving him

was what I needed to do,

for he had committed a crime,

witnessed by a few.

 

Seems he heard rumors

of riches coming his way.

Recalling my father’s failure,

he believed

he knew how to play.

Still living at home,

he awaited the arrival

of the delivery man,

who knocked on the door that day.

Opening it, he said,

“What you have in your hand

belongs to me.”

The delivery man replied,

“Well, no, that can’t be.”

Then my brother

pulled out my father’s gun

and shot the young man

in the knee.

He fell to the ground

on the front steps,

for all in the neighborhood to see.

With tears in his eyes, he cried,

“This was meant for an older man,

not you.

It’s been lost in the mail

for twenty years,

with postage due.”

 

 

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