Goodbye

What would I a woman of 27 have in common with you a boy of 15?
I played the game. Oh how I played the game.
I won't get close I told myself.
He's just a kid I told myself.
What did he really know about life anyway.

I played the game.
You were right.
We did have alot in common.
We like the same music and movies.
Though I did have to teach you a few things about good music.
You were a willing student eager to learn.
You also taught me that not all of TODAY'S music is crap.
I often found myself forgetting how young you really are.
If I didn't know better I would have said you were 40.

I played the game. Oh how I played the game.
I won't get close I told myself.
You were just a kid I told myself.
What did you really know about life anyway.
I played the game.

I soon found myself surrounded by your friends.
I often said to my friends
What is it about me that all these kids so far away are attracted to?
Why are they seeking me out?
The answer I got was HONESTY.
I gave you and your friends something that was missing from you lives.
Respect and fairness.
Things the people you were supposed to trust did not give you.
In return you and your friends gave me a sense of youth that had been missing from my life though I am hardly old.

I played the game. Oh how I played the game.
I won't get close I told myself.
You were just a kid I told myself.
What did you really know about life anyway.
I played the game.

Time moves on, the friendship deepens.
Our lives became part of the others.
I found it hard to get through a day without your smile.
My voice made you happy.
I told you things I never told another soul living or dead and you did the same.

I played the game. Oh how I played the game.
I won't get close I told myself.
You were just a kid I told myself.
What did you really know about life anyway.
I played the game.

More time and things suddenly change.
You have decided overnight that the way I live my life is wrong.
You have decided that I am the cause of your troubles.
You have decided that I can be thrown aside because I don't fit into the mold your parents and priests told you was right.
If that is how you feel that is fine.
But do me a favor.
Think for yourself and decide what is right.
Don't blame me for opening your eyes.
You asked the questions.

I played the game. Oh how I played the game.
I won't get close I told myself.
You were just a kid I told myself.
What did you really know about life anyway.
I played the game.

You were my Ishue and I was your Hay.
I believed we would be friends for a lifetime.
I was wrong.
But as you close the door on me forever
I know that you will remember what I have told you.
That kind of knowledge won't die easily.
One day your eyes will open to what is REALLY happening around you.
Chances are I won't be around to help you pick up the pieces and glue your life back together again.

I played the game. Oh how I played the game.
I won't get close I told myself.
You were just a kid I told myself.
What did you really know about life anyway.
I played the game.

I know you Ishue.
I know you as well as you know yourself.
But as well I know you I can't wait around for you to grow up.
I can't wait for you to come back then freak out again and bail.
So with this I say good-bye my friend.

Shay Kuntz
November 2000
For Krum