American Success Story ch. 4

Chapter 4
Alone and Bleeding
Pete Chandala American Success Story
or Scene two Act two
by RJHoffman

In chapter three, Child In the Field, Pete told us a little about himself as a boy growing up on his father’s pig farm. He is an introverted child who spends much time to himself, wandering through the fields around the farm. He doesn’t have many friends at school, and prefers to be alone reading comics and listening to Rock and Roll. The contention of his father that he wasn’t his son haunts Pete, and it isn’t clear what his mother’s side of the issue was, and, unfortunately, Pete will never know for sure, as he presents the tragedy of watching his mother die in a traffic accident as he waited for her to pick him up after school.

Alone and Breathing

I hope that I can make it
but I don’t think I can take it
as my little hand brushes
the curtain from my window
This morning Mom awakened me
But I didn’t want to leave the dream
I thought that I would never fly
She wondered if I’d wake up

Her trembling hands stroked my pillow
her quivering lips touched my eyes
She took my hand and urged me to follow
but she wondered what she was missing

She got me up and packed my lunch
got me off to catch the bus
told me not to worry
the other kids just wanted friends
but the thing that I could not express
was that I would get depressed
when I would me a friend
who would try to lead me

This doesn’t feel so chosen
as if it could ever be
any more than resolution
of all that was meant to be

You can’t run from what you have done
you left her alone when she was dying
now many years have passed
and you’ve got to break free
from the time you left her alone
while she was still breathing

She said she’d be there by three
but before that I could see
from the window the pickup truck
run the stop sign and flee the sign

As I approached the crowd
in front of me
you were lying alone and bleeding
Now many years have passed
and I have got to break free
from the time I left you alone
while you were bleeding

2017 Ronald Hoffman, Roaming Snyder Publishing. ASCAP