Bits and Pieces
by
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Ana Lydia Corazón Montoya de Nadie,
I like the way you walk, the way you laugh.
I like the way you put your hand on my arm when you talk to me. I like how it feels when I hold you.
Ana, I had forgotten I was lonely.
I remember now.
... She was like one of those chocolates that never satisfy.
When you have one, instead of saying, "Ah, that was good",
you think, "I want more."
"And when I saw the shadows in her eyes, I knew that she had already left."
I remember thinking to myself one time, while standing with a group of men who looked like my father's friends, how things had changed. These men were treating me like one of them, not like my father's son. Then I laughed to myself, realizing these men were kids when my father's friends looked like that. These men, and I, were the sons, so long ago. Now we are the fathers, and the fathers' friends.
And I was, indeed, part of this group.
Ah, for the eurhythmic life.
You can't read a book without opening the cover.
You can't say you've seen the sculpture if you haven't walked all the way around.
If you really want to understand something, you have to look at the edges.
I don’t remember growing old.
I was young, once.
And then I wasn’t.
Don’t let Chicken Little ruin your life.
Just eat better.
Exercise more, sit less.
Grow old, but stay vigorous.
Deal with the ones that come out, but if you don't look in the closet, you'll find that most monsters stay there.
Closet monsters are mostly, after all, nothing more than shadows.
I once had a cat named Gloom,
Who would curl ‘round my feet
In an old, forgotten room.
When we are born, all of our important people are right there in front of us, teaching, loving, reassuring. And as we grow, they are always there, at first in front of us, then beside us. Then behind us, whispering in our ear, holding the bike till we get going, adjusting our hands on the bat. And we feel secure.
And when we lose one of those people, we are suddenly afraid. We feel lost. Can we do it alone?
Yes, yes we can. They are still right there, behind us, beside us; within us. We can do it. It’s like before, when they said, “Now you do it.” They’re right there, right behind you, and now it’s your turn.
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About the Book
No one is an island. Whether we realize it or not, the people who surround us--family, friends, even complete strangers--shape who we are. They pass through our lives and make us the people we grow to be. Sometimes those same people even inspire us to follow our dreams.
Bits and Pieces is a collection of poetry that grew over decades of Richard Pernice’s career in the military and the truck-driving business. His words harken back to love found and eventually lost, as well as changes in life: going from being the child to the adult, son to father. He also admits to revealing his own monsters and fighting them into submission.
Life is all about experience and not being afraid of adventure. You can’t understand a book without opening its cover; you can’t describe a sculpture without walking all the way around it. So it is with life. Sometimes the most important moments are found along the edges of this highway, and if we aren’t careful, we’ll miss them.
About the Author
Richard N. Pernice is from a small town in northern New York. He spent twenty years serving in the military and almost as long working as a truck driver.