growing up <br />i never thought i'd <br />know people <br />who are dead <br />it's not something <br />you think about <br />until it happens to you <br />i didn't think one of my closest <br />friends would shoot himself <br />alone in his bedroom. <br />Cody did. <br />we used to play music <br />together and talk about <br />where we would go. <br />young and full of passion. <br />i wish so bad <br />that i would have been <br />a better friend to him <br />in his final days. <br />but we hardly spoke- <br />another boy, <br />David, <br />would come over to swim <br />and play with toy guns <br />when we were kids. <br />i can remember my mother <br />taking us to the local gas station <br />one summer day. <br />she bought us both a candy bar <br />and rented us a movie <br />i remember it all... <br />Caramello is the best <br />i told him <br />'i heard milky way is good, i'm getting that' <br />i was disappointed that he wouldn't try <br />my favorite candy bar. <br />(i wonder if he ever ended up trying one?) <br />we were in the same first grade class. <br />we rode the same school bus. <br />he would get off the bus in the middle <br />of the woods at some junkyard. <br />i used to wonder why he lived <br />in a junkyard. <br />i guess there could be a house in there <br />somewhere. <br />i remember one time <br />they were selling flowers at school <br />for valentines day. <br />i bought one to give to my mother. <br />and i couldn't wait to give it to her. <br />on the bus ride home David told me <br />he wanted my flower to give to HIS mom. <br />he told me he wouldn't be my friend anymore <br />if i didn't give it to him. <br />i felt a deep anger toward him, but i gave him <br />that flower. <br />i always regretted giving him <br />MY mother's flower. <br />years passed. <br />me and david drifted apart <br />like young friends often do. <br />i graduated. <br />he dropped out i think. <br />one day somebody told me <br />that his older brother had <br />stabbed him to death <br />while hallucinating on <br />drugs. <br /> <br />mortified. <br /> <br />i should have never been <br />mad about that <br />flower.<br /><br />Jonny Brackney<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-know-dead-people/
