Denis

The first indication that something had happened

Was when a number of squad cars

Raced past me in the general direction

Of the railroad station

I chose not to get involved

As the was no need for me to be there

It was only as I closed the hardware store

That I saw Denis walking towards me

He was not smiling as he normally did

Incident

There had been an incident at the railroad station

Somebody had thrown themselves

In front of an express train

Passing through at speed

Denis was a cop who I had known since high school

I could see that he had some bad news

At first I thought that Martha or my brother

Had for some reason been involved

I have some bad news Jack

Lemon is dead

Our good friend Lemon is dead

Outsider

Unlike many others in Ross

Who I had known all my life

Lemon was an outsider

He had moved into the town

When I was in my early twenties

It was then that I had met Alberta

Who was a brute of a woman

Some years older than him

Football

We quickly became friends

And frequented many of the local bars

I had once been a football player

Before injury ruined my fledgling career

I had that in common with Lemon

We had both been promising players

Who ended up on the injury scrapheap

I had bought my hardware shop

After I finished playing football

Whereas Lemon flitted from job to job

Technically he had never left the team

Alberta

She had the most amazing eyes 

Lemon used to show me photographs 

Of her when she was about eighteen 

Although you would not guess it now 

Alberta had been a very beautiful woman 

And then her problems started 

She started eating and drinking 

But Lemon still loved her 

Even thought she could be quite mad 

He could never forget

What she once was 

In the years before they moved to Ross 

He was the golden boy 

A football player heading upwards 

That is why he kept the photographs

In his fading wallet 

She was his girl and he was proud of her 

Things became worse

When he lost his career 

That is what had anchored them 

Before Ross there were many towns 

But they could not settle 

Occasionally she was in trouble with the cops 

Nothing drastic just trouble like driving when drunk

Or picking fights with people who had no wish to fight 

The Alberta we knew was just a pale shadow

Of what she once was when she was much younger

She was a taciturn woman who said very little

If I didn’t know better then I would have blamed the drugs 

They were meant to do good but in reality they did little 

She just retreated into a tormented cave

Of raw and amazing dreams 

Porch

It was easier than I thought it would be 

She had little or no fight left in her 

Although I was well aware

Of her continuing agonies 

Alberta did not suffer I can assure you 

I just increased her dose 

And suffocated her on our bed 

By the time you have read this 

I will be with her 

Please do not think ill of me 

As I look back on my time in Ross 

With the greatest affection 

You were my good friends

And I hope to meet you again sometime

I will be standing on our little porch 

With the most beautiful girl in town  


Please find it in your hearts to forgive me 

God Bless you all


Lemon