The best of times

"The Best Of Times"

"Tonight's the night we'll make history, honey, you and I

And I'll take any risk to tie back the hands of time

and stay with you here tonight

I know you feel these are the worst of times

baby I know, you wouldn't have to cry

I do believe it's true

When people lock their doors and hide inside

Rumor has it it's the end of Paradise

But I know, if the world just passed us by

The best of times are when I'm alone with you

some rain some shine, we'll make this a world for two

our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime

We'll take the best, forget the rest

And someday we'll find these are the best of times

These are the best of times

I do believe it's true"

Styx

         Charles Dickens wrote "It was the best of times, 

it was the worst of times" but to tell the truth of the

matter for me, it seemed anyways that it was nothing 

more than time, a time that was filled with chaos and so much 

confusion and of course cha cha changes when your

friendships, some that even went back as far preschool

and or kindergarten would start to become something 

slightly different, as everyone started growing up graduated 

and then started moving on to what we call the real life 

becoming so called adults in a world that had a hell of 

alot more questions than it did answers to give, then having 

to make those decisions about college the military, starting 

families making new friends or loosing old ones becoming just 

a mixed up menagerie of broken and fractured memories 

of our past, almost like chapters in a book that were 

ending with brand new ones beginning'' in a world that 

was so much different then the one we had all grown up 

in, one that was harsher, colder, less caring, less God-

fearing, more hateful, and spiteful in fact it was down 

right terrifying. Down here on this planet that we call 

earth which is the third planet from the sun, that revolves 

along its axis every twenty-four hours or what we call

a day, all the while revolving around the sun that takes

three hundred sixty five days or one year, which does 

not sound all that very long at all except that when you 

think about it and relizes that an average human only

lives up to seventy nine years meaning we only get that 

many spins to get it right or to find the meeting of life, 

or why it is we are really here.  Even Einstein said its 

become appallingly clear technology has surpassed 

our Humanity and that is very sad, which brings us back

to the beginning of at least this prose, for my generation 

was one of the last to know and truly understand what

"friendship" really means, all of those connections we made

are ones that will last a life time because we had 

the time to spend and the energy to cultivate and feed 

and grow, using our bicycles skateboards and playgrounds and most of all real life 

communication in a language that seems to be dying

out going extinct called get this actually talking face to face, 

everyday, and night, for

days, weeks, months, and years through laughter and

tears the real kind not  electronically recorded sound

boards or stupid smiley or poop emoji

standing around 

not making a sound staring down at a phone no, we 

were bonded by laws of the sacred street light where 

if you were not in by the time they came on the parent militia 

would be released as you dodged the neighbors trying to 

capture you giving you an ass whooping as you were trying 

to find your way home each taking turns spanking your butt 

with a wooden spoon or hair brush or scolding you then 

when you are hand delivered to the warden, your mother

where you hear the dreaded phrase "Just wait until your father 

gets home" thats when it went silent not a sound and all

your friends cringed knowing what was coming then 

sneaking candy or sodas to make sure you survived

the ordeal and that my friends is love. yes real 

tangible love the kind I have been searching for my 

entire life trying to get back wanting to feel that once again.

Love is not just between a man and a woman or wife and husband or even boyfriend and girlfriend, it is 

between those who will open their doors at three am without a 

question why, those who have cried with you, laughed

when you shaved your eybrows off accidently, or when

you lost your dog or cat, fell off the swing lost your

diamond ring, called your parents Mr. and Mrs or 

just plain mom and dad, all of those friends who made 

the effort to actually physically either walked, rode their 

bike, skateboard, or scooter all the way across town 

just to say hello, and not just call, text, or have their 

assistant send an email that is what love is all about,

it is sad nowadays who they call a friend for the people 

you meet today may indeed call themselves friends and 

they might or might not stick around for just a little 

bit but there is a difference and it is all superficial at that

because if you ever needed help for any reaon or were 

running from the cops and I do not mean you just killed 

somebody because you would not be a good friend 

dragging them in the middle of that or you just needed

someone to talk too at four am in the morning the first

ones that come into my mind are those that have already 

been there with me through good and the bad, happiness 

and being sad, had a bed ready and beer whenever 

any and the many breakups I have had just appeared.

But enough of that I think you get the picture and if you

do not then I feel sorry for you because your  probably a narcissist 

who do not even know how to love themselves

or even worse, just a scourge to humanity anyways run 

As fast and far as you can away from them, so in 

closing I would like to say I love you to class of nineteen eighty-four

and all the others before and after who know the true meaning of 

friendship and love and all the hardwork that goes into

making both work, and any and all of you who ran the

street light gauntlet trying to get to the house before 

your father got home and bear the marks of a belt whopping

given by the neighbors when you ran from mom, or 

playing with me in the park until dark, pitching 

quarters at school, buns up at lunch, even walking 

home or taking the school bus, 

ditching class to

go to zuma beach, driving around smoking Marijuana, 

Skiing down a hill at Mountain High first thing 

in the morning, taking a hike in the hills around 

White Face, putting out fires in October as the winds

tricked or treated us. All of those memories I will never forget 

reminding me of a very short moment of time that God had 

given me when I was so very happy I had the chance to 

experience in my life because all of those friends that I 

made back then are and will be my 

friends until the 

very end and  to those friends who we have already 

lost to God up in heaven just know you will never be  

forgotten, so just know I have made the spin around the 

sun more then half my lifespan and shall soon follow you 

down the path you have taken to be your friend once again. 

Rumor has it it's the end of Paradise

But I know, if the world just passed us by

The best of times are when I'm alone with you

some rain some shine, we'll make this a world for two

our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime

We'll take the best, forget the rest

And someday we'll find these are the best of times

These are the best of times

I do believe it's true"

Styx

Poet Richard M Knittle Jr. 

A Poet's Journey

A Texas Poet Laureate Nominee 2016 - 2022