Hush, Now, Don’t Cry

There’s a mission to Mars
Made by mindless machines
Zeros and ones
Strung on binary strings
There’s a time and a place
Whatever that means
The time is always now
This place just a dream
There’s a girl in the lineup
At the Dairy Queen
Hoping her boyfriend
Will buy her a treat
There’s a look on his face
Like he’d rather be
Anywhere else
And maybe that’s me
There’s a lost, lonely highway
Cracked by frost heave
Wandering nowhere
Through broken country
There’s a book of wise words
On the desk in the study
But you can’t believe
Everything you read
There’s a trail in the mud
Under the golden leaves
The same sort of footprints
An angel might leave
There’s a dog at the window
Panting into the breeze
The driver is laughing
While his passengers tease
There’s a rush of adrenaline
As we move through the trees
With a smile on her face
She defies gravity
There’s a silent acceptance
As want gives way to need
Like the moment we realize
When skin splits and bleeds
There’s the whisper of water
And a soothing fall breeze
A time and a place
Of resting for me
There’s a little girl looking
I wonder, ‘What does she see?”
If I could have one thing
I hope she grows up to be