Thank you for the blue jeans
When I was twelve
My mother decided
It was time to get
Serious about teaching
Her children
‘You’re getting older’ she said
A trip to Penny’s
Brand new pair of jeans
Button-up shirt
In short order, proper pupil
Morals and good versus evil
Righteousness,
While laudable
Pales against goodness
A beginning of
A good man
In spite of the shadows
From which I had come
(Shadows that haunt me still)
Sadly, for some of us,
it was already too late.
But a good heart
is a good heart
No matter how stupid
the mind
That drives it.