Writers' Corner

If you have a poem, song lyrics or a short story and you would like to share it with the readers of The Statesman now is your chance.

Email or mail us your submission and look for it in an upcoming issue of The Statesman.
You tell me I am getting old;
I tell you that's not so!
The "house" I live in is worn out,
and that, of course, I know.
It's been in use a long, long while,
it's weathered many a gale.
I'm really not surprised you think
it's getting somewhat frail.
The color's changing on the roof,
the window's getting dim,
The wall a bit transparent and looking rather thin.
The foundation's not so steady
as once it used to be.
My "house" is getting shaky,
but my "house" isn't me!
A few short years can't make me old;
I feel I'm in my youth.
Eternity lies just ahead, a life of joy and truth.
I'm going to live forever there;
life will go on -- it's grand!
My "house" is getting old?
You don't understand!
The dweller in my little "house"
is young and bright and gay,
Just starting on a life
to last throughout eternal day.
You only see the outside,
which is all that most folks see.
You tell me I am getting old?
You've mixed my house with me!
  - Submitted by Otis Rainwater

A SPECIAL PLACE
A father holds a special place,
inside a daughter's heart;
And even when she's far away,
they're never far apart.
For moments in her memory,
can take her back in time.
To happy days and places,
where everything was fine.
Though she never really knew it,
he was always there;
With encouragement and love,
and hugs when life was not fair.
But Daddy had to give her up,
as he walked her down the aisle;
He gave her to another man,
but did so with a smile.
For although she turns to him now,
for encouragement and love,
In her heart there's still that special place,
that's just for Daddy's love.
    -- Cindy Suddarth

GIANT VISITOR

Sometimes in life we're allowed to experience for a brief moment one of Nature's great wonders, and the thrill of that magic moment lasts a lifetime. I was lucky enough to hold in my hands one of those great wonders.

I didn't know where he came from, and I didn't see him leave, slipping away into the same oblivion from whence he came.

It was chore time in the country, and animals and fowls alike were making their way toward familiar shelters where they would find food and rest.

It had been raining for several days, and this day had been dark and gloomy, with one downpour after another, until late in the afternoon it started to clear and the sun was trying to peek out just in time to make a beautiful sunset.

Our family shepherd, Dora, always on the alert, suddenly began raising a ruckus in the front yard. The urgency and tone of her bark told us something was amiss. When she barked like that, it was a sure sign that we needed to go see what, or who she had found.

It was then I found him - calm and aloof in all his great majesty - surveying his surroundings and with an unblinking stare, facing a nose-to-nose confrontation with the frantic shepherd.

His species and beauty was a real surprise, and I was enthralled with our visitor. With his huge size, dignity and obvious age, he was indeed an imposing figure - a Giant Texas Tortoise, rare, and never seen except in rare cases in this area.

I couldn't resist picking him up, and like all of his kind, he retreated into his shell with a soft swish, exactly like the regular little box turtles we see often in the summer, except for his great size and weight.

I put him down and retreated back to the house, and expected to watch and see him leave, but when I looked again, he was gone. He vanished as quickly and as mysteriously as he had arrived. Where did he go, and is he still out there somewhere in our fields? Where had he been all these years that we had never seen him before? Was he a traveller just passing through, or maybe a victim of being uprooted from his native home and transported to this strange territory?

When I walk in the fields and woods, I still look for and hope to once again see that great beautiful creature. If not, I'm glad I was allowed to see, touch, and to hold in my hands for just a moment this wonderous surprise gift of Nature before he again disappeared into her mysterious depths.

--Dorothy Miller Birdwell