Jimmy Dale Pittman
(April 21, 1954-June 30, 2007)

To Jimmy: Nearly a Year Later

Today is your birthday,
It’s been nearly a year
Since you left us,
I still weep when I think of you.

I always called you on your birthday,
But now I can only call
On your memory with my poems.

Rest now, my brother,
I hope you’ve found peace
And a place where you
Won’t have to work so hard,
A place with green fields and cool breezes,
Like your plot of land in Haslet,
Or an Elysium or Paradise or Valhalla.

Valhalla would so suit your personality
And your Viking blood,
Odin may need wild scrappers like you,
Maybe pretty valkyries greeted you last June,
I imagine them sitting at your table now,
Singing and serving mead as you flirt,
Perhaps they’ll give you this poem,
Or at least tell you that I miss you,
That I promise to stand in the gap
And take care of our parents.
You were loved and will be missed, brother,
Much more than you know.
–2008