Lament was the final track on the Evita soundtrack. This song expressed the life I left behind in North Carolina.
After living in DC for a year and a half, something happened to me that brought about a massive transformation. I could feel my life move from one stage to the next. It was most definitely one of the biggest reincarnations that I have experienced in my life thus far.
In March of 1997, while walking home from a local pub, four guys strung out on crack attempted to mug me. Luckily, I was able to fight them off. I went “country redneck” on their asses and started cursing and swinging every limb on my body like a madman. Fortunately, the mugging took place right in front of my apartment building. It was 3:00 a.m., and everyone in the building started turning on their lights as I cursed at the top of my lungs. I threw one guy down on the pavement and started kicking him with my steel-toed motorcycle boots. They took off running down the street with their hoods over their heads while I ran inside my apartment to call the police. I knew that if it had happened on a dark street and they had a knife or a gun, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here writing this story. That experience profoundly changed me and slowed me down quite a bit.
“Remember I was very young then and a year was forever and a day So what use could fifty, sixty, seventy be? I saw the lights, and I was on my way.”
A few weeks later, I met Cyrus. Cyrus was originally from North Carolina and had moved to DC six years earlier. We met on a Saturday and hit it off instantly. I’m not sure if it was the mugging or what, but Cyrus and I decided to move in together the very next week. Neither of us had ever moved in with someone so quickly, but it felt right, so we went for it. At this point, I moved into the Southwest section of town. This section of the city still had its drug dealers, but for the most part, it was peaceful and not as busy as some of the other parts of town.
But the transformation after meeting Cyrus wasn’t so much a change of location as a change of heart. Meeting Joel renewed my faith and gave me back my self-worth. Meeting Cyrus would allow me to transition from my emotional, dark, “sad” past into a future filled with light, hope, and spirituality.
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LAMENT
The choice was mine, and mine completely
I could have any prize that I desired
I could burn with the splendor of the brightest fire
Or else, or else I could choose time
Remember I was very young then
And a year was forever and a day
So what use could fifty, sixty, seventy be?
I saw the lights, and I was on my way
And how I lived, how they shone
But how soon the lights were gone