Tommy Lee and Anna Marie

                             I bought an old house in need of repair.
                             I tore out walls and replaced all the floors,
                             and in a front bedroom under the boards,
                             a woman’s journal hidden and secure.
                             It took me on a journey back through time,
                             the first line read 1876.
                             A diary penned by Anna Marie,
                             written in the shades of her life’s journey.

                             She tells of the young boy named Tommy Lee,
                             a child scorned for most of his lonely life.
                             His mom and dad dead, he kept to himself,
                             and lived alone out on the family farm.
                             He spent his days doing odd jobs around town,
                             not a friend, including Anna Marie.
                             He spent his evenings writing and reading,
                             apparently a flare for poetry.

                             It happened that at the age of 16,
                             the town parson found fondness for Anna.
                             Not a soul knew the little dark secret,
                             but Tommy Lee noticed the parson’s gaze.
                             As fate would have it on that dreadful night,
                             Tommy Lee was doing chores at the church.
                             The parson called for Anna Marie
                             to discuss…her church participation.

                             Passing the parson’s door Tommy heard moans,
                             entering he saw the preacher on her.
                             Laying across the desk with tears in her eyes,
                             her dress hiked high, the preacher’s trousers low,
                             a crying plea crossed her lips, “please help me.”
                             Tommy Lee wrestled the preacher away,
                             but being slight, it was a losing fight.
                             Tommy Lee was in danger for his life,

                             the wicked preacher intended him dead.
                             Knocked back upon the desk, beaten badly,
                             Tommy’s hand found a letter opener
                             and he drove it into the preacher’s heart.
                             Anna Marie ran home, Tommy went to jail.
                             A trial of silence to the preacher’s deed,
                             nothing of the evil done to Anna;
                             Tommy Lee stared with a tear…quietly.

                             Anna Marie, fearing reaction, was hushed.
                             Tommy Lee, swung from a tree at 18,
                             at 16, Anna Marie, watched him die.
                             Tommy’s life taken to the square and burned,
                             everything he owned turned into black ash.
                             The blaze consumed most of Tommy Lee’s books,
                             but for a single charred writing journal,
                             Anna Marie recovered from the flames.

                             Treasuring it home, she read his love poem.
                             “O’ Anna Marie, my heart sings a song,
                             you are the beat that’s tapping out my love.
                             My soul, a lingering note playing strong,
                             at your eighteenth year, praying to above.”
                             Anna spoke once to Tommy Lee…on that night.
                             He swung by his neck with love in his heart,
                             Anna Marie mourned for such tragedy.

                             Throughout the years, she read Tommy Lee’s poems,
                             all his words spoke to his deep love of her.
                             A simple stone marked where the young boy laid,
                             Tommy Lee’s name, all alone, carved in stone.
                             Curiosity led me to his grave,
                             And this is what the stone reads; “Tommy Lee,
                             An Unsung Hero, who loved and is loved,
                             Anna Marie.  Her stone lies next to his.



Authors Note:
If I find Tommy Lee’s journal I will post his poems to Anna Marie.