I Wish

I remember the boy. He wanted to be a super-hero. He wanted to be a rock 'n' roll star. He wanted to be the most trusted lover and the best friend. He wanted to be content enough to smile most of the time and he wanted to be wealthy enough to not to have to worry about a blessed thing.

Yeah, I remember that boy.

I wish I could hug the boy...as he's flying in the backyard (towel trailing behind him as he went) or playing air guitar with the Stones (basking in the acclaim of the adoring crowds.) I wish I could hug the boy when he's crying bitter tears over silly crushes who never knew he was even alive. I wish I could hug the boy and tell him, "it's not always gonna be okay...sometime it'll be so wonderful you won't believe it could be true...and sometimes it'll be so painful that you won't believe you can survive it... but you'll get through it."

I wish I could tell him, "your Mama loves you sure...but your brother loves you, too...and yeah even your Daddy loves you the best way he knows how...and you'll get through it."

"People will break your heart...and you'll foolishly break your own heart...you'll be the hero and the bastard...the lover and the confidant...and you'll get through it."

I wish I could hug the boy...make him learn to savor all of the laughter and all of the tears...all of the dreams and all of the realities; make him see that, in one way or another, he's going to be a super-hero...and a rock star...and a lover and a friend...a fool, a mirror, a dreamer, a slave and a freedman, a light in somebody's eye and a knife in someone's heart...a boy and a man utterly ordinary and utterly unique at once.

I wish I could reach back across the years and hug the boy..."you'll get through it"...I wish...