The Ancient Mariner

I thought I would start you out with the poem that really got the whole ball rolling for me. I had written a few little things prior to this, but mainly they were just funny/sweet little quips to my wife on a birthday or an anniversary.

This was the 1st time I felt overwhelming COMPELLED to write something. The background on how this poem came to be written is very sad, because I had to lose a friend for the inspiration to write it.

My friend's name was Thomas Kraft. I had been friends with Thomas since 1984, when he was 16 and I was 15. We were never really super close until, maybe, the last 5 or 6 years of his life. Him, I and some other friends had kind of reconnected after being out of school for close to a decade.

By the time I had reconnected with Thomas, I was married and had a little girl. He was settling down, himself, and was soon to have a wife and baby. We ended up in the same church together and really started to hit it off. More so, even, than we had back in high school.

Thomas was an acquired taste for almost anybody. He had a really odd sense of humor and most people, upon first meeting, didn't warm up to him. Over the years, though, and with more exposure to one another, I began to see under the layers and came to know a genuinely good natured and sensitive guy. But, he would have never let you know that unless you put in a decade or so of time to earn it. LOL.

Thomas, now married with 3 children, had just bought a house, after landing a pretty good job working on elevators. He was with the elevator union, though, and sometimes would find himself on the bench waiting for the next available job.

This is how it was in the summer of 1999, when Thomas had been on the bench for a longer amount of time than he had anticipated. This lack of regular paychecks was pressing hard on him financially, with the new house, and I knew it.

So, with the summer heat really killing me in my roofing business, I thought it would be beneficial for both of us if he started working with me until the elevator union put him back to work. I told him I couldn't really offer much, but at least it could supplement for him and hopefully keep him afloat. He agreed and off to work we went.

We spent about two to three hot summer months together in a truck or on a roof. We were with each other all day, 5 to 6 days out of the week. And that didn't count Sundays when I seen him at church and sometimes after, watching pre-season football that summer.

My point to all this, is to try and let you get a feel for how close we had become over those last few months. We began to confide in each other and even advise each other on matters, like we had never done before. It's really good to have close friends you can trust and confide in. I'm a lucky man, I've had several over the course of my life. Thomas, being one of the closest.

He would relate to me his feelings about his wife and children. They meant the world to him. He would tell me about his hopes and dreams for the future. And his future was bright, indeed.

You see, I watched Thomas Kraft grow up right before my eyes that summer of '99. Don't get me wrong, he still retained that odd sense of humor, but I could see through it now. I could see down into his soul and I knew the outside persona was just a put on. Deep down, Thomas was a kind, caring and loving Husband, Father, Son, Brother and, for me, Friend.

So, when Thomas called me on a Friday evening, after work, to let me know he was being put back to work by the union, I was ecstatic for him. I knew this meant his financial struggles were soon to come to an end. However, I was sad in a sense too, because I was gonna miss having him in that truck all day long beside me.

When Sunday rolled around the NFL season had been underway a couple of weeks and Thomas, as usual, came over after church to watch the games with me. We spent the entire day together watching football, eating too much food and laughing at that odd sense of humor.

When he got ready to leave, that evening, he told me he had to get to bed early, because the new job was on the other side of the state and he had to get up early. I told him it wasn't gonna be the same without him in that truck the next morning and that was met with a typical gesture of Thomas' humor, which I won't go into details on in case your eating, but suffice it to say we both had to leave the room and I couldn't go back in there for half an hour.

That was the last time I saw Thomas Kraft alive. That next morning I was in my truck with an empty seat next to me when my cell phone rang. When you get news like that, it feels like someone pulls the earth out from under you and your hurtling through space.

Thomas had not been on the job long that morning when a horrible accident occurred while he was working at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Tragedy and fate doesn't care if you're a good Father. Tragedy and fate doesn't care if your a good Husband. Tragedy and fate didn't care that he was my good Friend. When it's your time it's your time, right?

That did nothing to ease the thoughts and visions going through my head, on my drive back home, after receiving the devastating news. A drive that took longer than usual, because I had to keep pulling over to gather myself.

When I got home I hugged my wife and I hugged my two little girls, who were too young to understand why Daddy was crying uncontrollably. I then went to my room and collapsed in a puddle of tears on my bed.

Lying in that bed, horrible thoughts and visions swam through my head. I kept seeing my friend turn and look up and it horrified me to no end to think of the fear that he must of had at that moment in time. It was eating at me and I couldn't let it go. I wanted so much, to know he never knew anything happened.

Then a flood of words and sentences began to flow through my mind and gather into formation. I had to get a pen and paper fast! I felt as though I couldn't write fast enough. And here is the result.