When you write my story

When you write my story
Paint me as a sympathetic character.
A lost wonderer
Living in the present days
Coming from the romantic times.
When gentlemen bowed and smoked cigarettes
And women light up the stages, dancing to jazz music

When you write my story
Tell how I was on the forefront
When the police cracked down on the protesters
Singing, “Give Peace a Chance”

That I come from Portland
And breathe deep the liberal air.

When you write my story
Show scenes of my life
Like a montage.
With an up beat pop song
Playing in the background.

Show me sitting at the TV
Enjoying the film and movie culture.
And spending endless hours
Playing video games.

When you write my story
Have me putting on records.
And sitting a the table
Puzzling over math homework.

Show me banging out chords on the piano
Or strumming them on guitar.
Show me spending the nights “burning the midnight oil”
Just to get my songs perfected

When you write my story
So me spending time at CD/Record Exchange
Looking for the perfect deals.
And of the time I spend on Hawthorne
Enjoying the localities. 

Have a section where
I’m eating at Tom’s
“I’ll have the usual”
A bacon cheeseburger
With fries and an iced tea.

Illustrated me as and idealist
Someone who always looked forward
And never back.
But importantly
Use words that will conjure a human.
A real person.

On the epitaph
Of my gravestone
Write “Carpe Diem”
Seize the Day