The life that Could have been By Kayla Hall

No rush hour traffic
No L.A. cops looking for a chase.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was lucky
he had his socks,
at first others laughed.
What man would wear a pair of periwinkle socks?
They saw the change, they saw him play
such sock should be more than a buck fifty.

And with has last game of his career he took
the periwinkle socks to Mexico.

Pina coladas at a swim up bar in his hotel.
The sound of the blender masked the splash
as Ms. Peacock came up for air
such an obvious nickname
for the girl with the peacock father tattoo.

Only seconds, but isn't that what it takes?
With the girl vanished what is a man to do?
He did not need to decide
the socks brought her to him.

Peacock's car stalled in the tracks
with no one around
adrenaline pumping
I use my own car
tires squeal as I push her across the tracks.
our cars acted as shields
debris rained down
two trains meet
I hope this isn't a foreshadow.

We went out for coffee as we waited
our cars were totaled
hands shook, nerves, caffeine, take your pick.
In spur of the moment we got horse shoes
inked on our skin
we were lucky, we survived.

This was our start.
We got close, so close
you could hear the ringing.
I proposed on a boat
floating in lake Erie.
Intertwined with red grapes
her ring shined.

Morning after I made her breakfast in bed
crepes with strawberries
covered in an orange marmalade sauce.
All the sweet sugar attacked
ants, came in marching single file.

For lunch she made me a picnic
where we talked
hours of religion
the prophet Mohamed
and about our next trip.

After seeing the big cats
lion and cheetahs
we wanted one of our own.
But a little boy could not be around such a creature.
We got a calico house cat
then it became two
then three.
We all had our own cat.
Our cats slept in the living room
curled in
part of the brown shag carpet.

Our sons cat slept in his room.
Tucked away in the mystery van
customized bed for our prince.

Cans of paint still on there
after painting Jupiter
and new paint next to those
for when we painted Callisto.
The opener was engulfed by one of the paints.

We couldn't open the third set of cans.
Instead he got the movie Dinosaur.
It was a lot less work.

But I lived In L.A.

there was rush hour traffic

I missed the last shot

and lost the game.