I'll Be Doing It Until I Die

Brad Gaines grabbed Clorox
A bottle of glass cleaner
Tossed them into the twenty-year-old Buick
Cranked 'er up and took off
Headed for a cemetery
Been making the same trip
For many years
Despite the pleas of his wife and kids to stop

I'll be doing it until I die, the young man said.

These trips started twenty years ago
He makes the 175-mile trip
To visit a friend he never really knew
But a single play on a football field
Fused them together
As though they were brothers
Gains, a tailback for Vanderbilt
Went after Chucky Mullins
A safety for Mississippi
Going high in the air for a pass
Grimes caught him in the back
And then rushed back to the Vanderbilt huddle
Chucky never got back up
Neck shattered
Died two years later
It's just football
Nobody's fault
Everybody agreed
Even Grimes
It's all part of the game,
but it doesn't change the facts, you know . . .

Three times a year
Gaines drives from Nashville
To Russelville, Alabama
And to Chucky's grave simply marked

Chucky, Man of Courage

What drives Grimes
To make this trip three times a year
He says
There have been times when I had to hitchhike
Because I ran out of gas
Had blown out tires
Car broke down
His wife and children
And total strangers have worried about him
Maybe the only one who can truly understand
Is Mullins lying 'neath the ground

Gaines, white kid from hoity-toity Vanderbilt
Mullins, skinny black kid from nowhere town
Gaines couldn't sleep after the accident
No longer cared about the sport
He grew upon
Didn't even play his senior season
He visited Mullins in the hospital
It wasn't your fault Mullins told him.
Mullins spirit was strong
Walter Payton, Janet Jackson
George Bush came to call
Still Mullins was called to his spiritual home
And Brad visits
Plucks weeds, clean grime from the headstone
Then sit down beside the grave
Converses and prays
Why?
Because I love him
To Grimes it is just that simple

What will Grimes headstone read one day
Man of Guilt
Man of Craziness
Man of Compassion
Whatever it will be, somehow you just know
Mullins will be glad to clean it

©October 30, 2009 / Jerry Pat Bolton