A
Better Place
By Ian Stevens
A
withered rose beside the street
lurking
in the shadow of an oak tree,
and
a little boy wandering by
looks
at the poor thing and picks it up.
He
walked home to care for it, you see,
he
saw that everything on earth deserved to live.
Putting
it up in a vase of water, next to the sun
he
stared at it and began to cry;
the
dad came over and asked, “Whats wrong my son?”
and
the child responded “Daddy, do you see that rose,”
“Yes,”
replied dad and the boy went on with a tear in his eye,
“I
remember when mommy used to sing a song...”
“That
song said that everything deserved to live happy.”
then
choking up again he started to weep,
the
dad said to him, “There there, everything will be all right.”
“But
mommy... she... she is dead. She's not happy is she?”
“Shhh
don't say that, she is happy as a bumble bee
because
she raised you my son, she can still sing.”
The
dad held his hand with a tear rolling down his face,
“She
sings about her beautiful boy with morals stout as stone,”
and
then he asked “Why can't we see her, why won't god let us fly?”
“Well
we must earn our passage, our rights, our dreams about grace.
We
must always to show love and sing.” and as he led his son to his
room to sleep
the
boy asked, ”Daddy, will you always be with me, be by my side?”
“Oh,”
said daddy, ”I will never leave you, neither has mommy. Shes in a
better place, in heaven
were
she sings with the angels and all dreams come true.”
Slowly
the boy drifted off to sleep and the dad went to his room-
he
stopped and saw the rose, livelier, free, and would be healthy soon.
He
knelt down and said a prayer, “Dear god, thank you for your great
blessings,
and
mommy's spirit to guide our dreams and life.”