Elope
A car slowly drives down the highway
The driver’s vision impaired by blissful tears
A white frame house sits near the road’s bend
Then he thinks of her father and fears
I love you said her letter
I’m packed and ready to elope
And her perfumed, lilac stationery
Gives him courage, filling his senses with hope
He hides his car around the bend
The moon is beaming, lighting the night
He walks the quarter mile to her house
And waits by the kitchen door with fright
He’d asked for her hand and been told no
When asked why not he almost got shot
She now hates her father
They had to flee because passion was too hot
He loves his lady dearly
She’s eighteen and they’re running away
He and his ladylove will marry
Without her daddy’s blessing later today
With craftiness she slips out the back door
Her late mother’s old cardboard suitcase in hand
A shadow she sees through the moonlight
She stops and wonders, is it dad or her loving man?
From the upstairs window her father is watching
As the couple embrace, then move to the car
Dad remembers running off to marry her mother
As the moon sets, the sky fills with stars
A car slowly drives down the highway
The newlyweds laugh, both full of joy
In the rearview mirror, a white frame house gets smaller
And in nine months she’ll birth a bouncing baby boy.
© Jimmie A. Kepler
June 17, 2011
