This will not be a ballad
sung for Ouida Keeton,
nor a song to be strummed
for the history books,

only some words
in the form of some verse
to remember what always
shows true:

the human spirit
sometimes hides
something much worse
that what, at first look,
seems like it would do,

and sometimes, one gets
what one deserves,
and sometimes, one’s just
passing this world
through

inspired by a prompt for Write Across America via South Mississippi Writing Project