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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

5-15-12 Pictures of Tommy - a memoirist’s blog #16


(Right now, I’m focusing on my memoirist work that I’ll call, simply, “Pictures of Tommy” -- all about my psychotic brother and his legacy. If so inclined, please share, and tell me what you think. . . )

EULOGY, part 2 (con’t)

And how about this one, also by my brother, Tom Agnelli?

WORDS

Sighs and byes and apple pies,
Lines and blinds and sorry minds,
If your truths turn black,
And you want to attack,
You might find,
You want to unwind.

They say we’re precious gold,.
And our lives will unfold
And will make the scene someday,.
If we re what we say.

Hey are you lonely
Haven’t got a friend?
Bettina’s got something,
And it never seems to end.

You go through all your problems,
You know it hurts me so,
But maybe it’s just my issues,
And I wish they’d let you go.

Brother Tom could be smart, funny, interesting – and demanding, unreasoning, stubborn – but as his friend, Frank, always said, he had this deep down optimism and would always bounce back.

But towards the end, Tommy’s physical health got to the point of no return.  His confusion and anger about life – and his ambivalence about being alive – finally hit the tipping point. 

Here’s the last poem I’ll read – but there are so many more, so many good ones that must be shared. . .

TRUTH

By Tom Agnelli

I laugh I cry
It’s too painful,
To say goodbye
I look around
I say a prayer
It’s hard to know that
You’re not there.

And yet there’s Heaven
In the sky
And I know where
my spirit lies
A part of me
Wants to be,
Let me let go
Set me free

Tommy, we hear you.  We understand.  We love you.  (I wrote this to be read on August 5, 2011, at his Saint Anastasia’s Church funeral mass. . .)



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