the ring by: karl meier

I came from a family that didn't have much, no great wealth or material things.
So when our dear father passed-on, I got his most precious thing, his true unconditional love and his old worn wedding ring.
He wore this band on his strong calloused hand, for all the world to see.
Never once taking it off, to show all the world, the loves of his life, his wife his daughters and me.
It finally came off the day they laid him to rest and was lovingly given to his best friend and son, yes that ring was given to me.
It was my sole gift from that hard working man, a far greater a treasure he could not have bestowed.
It stayed on my hand through good times and bad, through three wives I had of my own.
Through all those years and many wives I never had kids of my own, I never felt the love in my heart that this man so freely bestowed.
And at some sad and lonely time in my life, that ring had turned to nothing but gold.
While in cold grip and maniacal clutches of an evil more greedy than most.
I pawn my soul and sold that beautiful gift to pay dues too that grim evils host.
I've long since broken free of that most sinister and evil of beasts.
Still when I count all the sorrow the give and the take I feel that the beast finally won.
For never again in a regret lifed life, will I ever wear that wonderful gift that was passed down from father to son.