What Happened That Day

What happened that day
Makes me ashamed
In the dead of night
A call came in.

What happened was
The lights went on
I woke up
And my mother came to me.

My dad was on the phone
My sisters still asleep
Twelve forty five
And I fell down crying.

My tired eyes couldn’t close
My parents left
And I felt all alone.

I laid in bed
With my head on the pillow
I was crying.

One o’clock, two o’clock
Three o’clock went past
Almost asleep
I turned my TV off.

Suddenly another call
I said “hello”
My aunt answered
I was wide awake.

I put down the phone
Walked into my room
And fell back into bed.

I laid in bed
With my head on the pillow
I was crying.

Six o’clock came
My movie was over
I took a shower
And sat in a chair.

I turned the TV on
The Muskegon news
Yet it didn’t show
What I wanted to see.

I fell asleep
Eight o’clock came
My parents came home
And put me to bed.
At one o’clock
I woke up
Went into the kitchen
And got something to eat.

We jumped in the car
And came to Whitehall
We stayed at a friend’s
And I slept all night.

Five days had passed
At the Sorenson’s house
I got all dressed up
And jumped in the car.

A big lady stood up
As intimidating as she was
She started crying
And I cried with her.

A stoned lady stood
In front of the room
“You say you know me
But I don’t know you.”

She kept saying those lines
Over and over
I tried not to laugh
But I couldn’t help it.

My uncle was dead
And I never knew
How much he meant to me
Until he was gone.

~This poem was written within a year of the death of my Uncle, Edward Hanes. He died July 24th, 2002 on his motorcycle, getting onto US 31 in Muskegon. We hadn't seen him in over 2 years.

Randa Lee Hanes
Written in 2003

Copyright ©2009 Randa Lee Hanes

My Life

My life has gone by
On a zigzag line
I’ve hit every corner
And seen every sign
But not been able to
Go in a straight line
And I’ve not been able
To find a purpose that’s mine.

My life is in shambles
With mistakes and more
My family is not happy
Because we are poor
We’ve made it through everything
We are aching and sore
Our hearts are slowly dying
There’s no blood in our core.

I stumble and fall
And see all that’s behind me
And remember the suffering
The Lord once did see.

My life has gone by
On a zigzag line
I’ve hit every corner
And seen every sign
But not been able to
Go in a straight line
And I’ve finally found
A purpose that’s mine.

Randa Lee Hanes
Written in 2002

Copyright ©2009 Randa Lee Hanes