A Sad Tale

I am going to tell to you a tale quite sad.
For my college roommate back then in 1963,
this story always brings up memories...all bad.
That night had started out fun for Tim and me.

We attended a basketball game, Georgia and LSU.
Afterwards, we both went for burgers and french fries.
Eager to get back to the dorm to study for a test or two,
we gobbled our meal, carrying out our dessert of fried pies.

Driving back to the dorm, we were rehashing the game,
me driving, Tim eating his dessert, when at a red light,
I stopped. The speeding car behind didn’t do the same!
Tim hit the windshield, rebounding with such great might

that he broke the seat, and now lay flat on his back.
I immediately knew that I wasn’t hurt.“Tim, are you okay?”
>From the dark,”I’m hurt bad. I taste blood. Everything’s black.”
Soon people were there. I heard “An ambulance is on the way.”

Dorm friends began arriving, all asking Tim how was he?
“My face has to be smashed and all cut up, I guess.
It’s sticky and wet, just a big, bloody ooze...it must be.”
He sobbed. “I’m too handsome to have my face be a mess.”

Rapidly word spread among our friends, “Tim’s crying like a girl!
He thinks his face is all messed up.” The ambulance came.
Working over Tim, a medic exclaimed “What in the world?”
Next thing we knew, Tim was on his feet, his face just the same.

“What about all that blood you said your face was covered in?”
“Well, I did bang my forehead and my nose did bleed some.
But, you remember that cherry turnover I was eating then...”

The sad part of my tale? Shouts of “Oh, you’re sooo handsome!”
dogged Tim all around campus for years and years to come.


Friendly Musings


Harry Edward Gilleland      06.13.02    printer friendly