11/11 amos

Editor’s note: Amos is a churchmouse who types by hurling himself at the keys, but he can’t operate the capital shift keys, and he shuns punctuation marks — except dashes and hyphens.

freddie s redemption

boss it seems like ages

ago yesterday that freddie

the flea changed his ways

in fact it s almost hard to

remember how he was

before today

but sometimes it s good

to remind ourselves from

whence we came

i showed freddie what i penned

about him several years ago

it went sorta like this -

boss i ran into despair

yesterday freddie flea was

lying in a heap next

to the garbage can

looky here he says to me

the symbol of my life

he pointed with a shaky hand

to the rusty can i could write

a book on how to snarf and

hook from under the pan

sounds bad says i what do

you mean everything says he

life is dead he said when a

bug is headstrong to go on the

road - a rosebed it ain t he said

and dropped his head

but why says i to the runaway

did you fly away in the first place

he looks at me sorta strangely

and says what s your case

his eyes searched my face

are you a bug-chiatrist

he asked and shook his fist

no says i just an ordinary guy

then i ll tell you says he i ran

away for me to live and be free

but you said i said

i know what i said he said

life on the street is death

there s no place for a breath

of fresh air anywhere

then why not come upstairs

says i where there s cool air

and fair skies

how can that be says he

it s a matter of redirecting

your focus says i

no hocus-pocus

if ya wanna find real life

look to the creator of life

only he can abolish strife

but he says to me how -

can i find it even now

sure i chortled joyously

look you wanted to live free

to live for yourself and fly

so you lunged at life and died

the more you grabbed

the less you had

that s right he said

it s like a blight

here s why says i if ya

wanna live ya gotta die

it sounds like a lie

to me says he

but the more you cling

more death it ll bring

says i in reply ya gotta

choose to lose your life

to christ if ya wanna win

this battle over sin and strife

but give up my life says he

it s the only way to victory

says i then you can fly

move up on high

climb into the upstairs lane

live life on a higher plane

but says he - to die

to self - and put my selfish

dreams on a shelf -

i don t know says he

maybe - just maybe -

to trade away my misery

for life peace and victory

maybe that s for me

boss that was the turning

point for freddie

and life at times may still

get crazy but freddie s never

really been the same

amos