Lesson

I’m not sure I was scared of the dark

as a boy or if my aging mind tells me

I should have been because who isn’t.

I do know I was terrified of falling into

a snake pit like Mattie did in True Grit

(I’m thinking of the original, buoyed by

Glen’s smooth tenor, and Wayne’s eye).

As I think about it now that snake den

was dark, so I guess I was scared of the

dark or at least what it could hold in a

writhing ball at the bottom of its heart.

Sure, I loved Rooster and LaBoeuf, but

they were big and I was small. My hero

in the movie was Mattie, a child like me

thin and unsure but betting I had the grit.

Maybe that’s why my father made sure

I memorized that movie, to learn few

battles are won alone, and to see under his

watchful eye someone small like me in

light of the technicolor sun of true love.