Poetry for the Masses

Now, this is not an easy tale to tell...well...what I mean is to tell right. It starts off several years ago...it was shortly after my father in law passed away...one of the worse and emotional tines of my life...as it was for my son. It was decided that he and I should make a trip back to the US and visit my parents to try to ease the feelings we were going through. We hadn't seen my parents for four years and they were sorely missed as we were for them. It was a wonderful stay...my son and I playing tourist on Hilton Head and Bluffton SC. Now one night it was decided to go out for pizza as my parents knew of a place with the best pizza in town. I remember the drive to the little place very well... It was very dark and my father was a little lost...but we finally made it there. Now let me tell you, my initial thoughts weren't all that much...pizza place in a strip mall. But when you walk in it is like twilight zone...large old fashioned wood bar and loads of tables...quite large for a place in a strip mall. We took a table on the left side...the smoking side...yes a bar where you can still smoke...it was the second table from the front...something I will never forget. As we sat down a very cute little waitress came to us and took our order...being me of course I checked her out...maybe a little too much as she stuck very hard in my memory...other than that the night was pretty normal and soon the vacation was over. We went back to Turkey shortly after that. The next few years was a very difficult time in my life and finally came to a head and I returned to the US...without my son and a marriage over. I got a job at Sunshine Nursery shortly after coming back...70 hour weeks didn't help with a social life so was occupying a chair at night...asleep at 8. Now Sunset was always in my mind...and the little blond that I had seen years before. Now as foolish as this might seem...we are talking of me of course... I was actually more afraid of her not being there and being disappointed should she not be...it took a year before I ventured in. Now as bad as this may seem but I was seeing someone who I asked if she was hungry one afternoon and since we just happened to be close she agreed to pizza. We walked in and sat at the bar. I have used the term several times before about a wrecking ball...well...that is just what it was like...never asked but hoped the girl I was with didn't know or notice...that I would have felt bad about...but inside I was a deer in headlights. Yep, that's how it was with Lauren...still is. That night we had the pleasure of barroom enthusiasm...a little domestic event that ended with a hole in the wall. On top of that and being able to smoke inside, the pizza was very good...so I knew I would be back. I stayed away for a tiny bit then one night got the idea to go and get a pizza to bring home. This time a very beautiful brunette was behind the bar...adorable as adorable could be and very funny and flirtatious... That was Lexi. Sunset started to look even better. I started going in almost nightly shortly after that. Of course had started to become close to my new friends so being me, I had to be different. I mentioned that I was a writer and began writing poems nightly on the back of my receipts. At the same time, I had gotten into a routine of having calzones and having half and saving the rest for the next day. Lexi as the artist that she is began decorating the Styrofoam take out boxes... Lauren got into the game as well...oh my treasures. One night...a Lexi night...we were talking and for some reason the film "What's New Pussycat" came up... Lexi said she hadn't seen it...a viewing was planned...still waiting for that. I started calling her pussycat...direct reference to the film...the name stuck and from that night on she was pussycat...and from her I became tomcat...which I turned into Thomas Katt.