Some Things That You Have To Keep
by Darrell Wallace
I walked down to the river; it was late and dark at night.
I stared into the water and wondered if I were right?
An old man appeared beside me: I turned to look his way.
He said “Listen to me. I’ve got something I need to say.”
“Maybe you have some problems, and life hasn’t been real kind,
So I’ll tell you a secret, it might ease your mind.”
He looked down at the water and shivered from the cold.
He pulled his coat tighter around him, and then said, “I must be getting old.”
“This is easy to understand, if you listen to what I say.”
“There are some things that you have to keep,
And some things you throw away.”
“I keep pictures of my children locked inside my head,
The sound of my wife’s laughter lasted long after she was dead.
I’ll never forget Korea, or the 32nd parallel.
All the faces of my dead friends, I remember too damned well.
For while I drank too much, to remember what went on,
And I found myself standing here, by this river, all alone.”
Swift waters run deep, it’s true
I learned my lesson that day,
There are some things you have to keep,
And some things you throw away.”
“You keep the things that make you smile and you keep the lessons you’ve learned.
You try to forget the anger and the times that you been burned.
Forget the things you leave behind, they don’t fit you now anyway.
Keep what you need to carry on and don’t throw your life away.”
I looked up and he was gone, just the river and me.
The dark of night was fading and it was easier to see.
I looked all around me, but the only thing I found
Was a note in a bottle lying on the ground.
I almost didn’t read the words, afraid of what I find.
The note was addressed “to anyone” and it only had four lines.
“I can’t forget; I can’t go on.
There is nothing left to say.
There are some things you have to keep,
And some things you throw away.
This is easy to understand, if you listen to what I say…
There are some things you have to keep,
And some things you throw away.”
