Satisfy the Soul

Satisfy the Soul:

A Tracklist

1. Take Me Out to the Ballgame - Take him out to the streets of San Francisco, where the Giants swing their sticks! Seven years old and he’s unable to sleep, his veins pulse with curiosity and excitement. Tomorrow morning’s attire sat, waiting to be adorned: Giants tee, jeans, and his baseball mitt, worn-in to perfection. His thoughts circled the bases in his head. Would he see Barry Bonds? Could he get his autograph . . . the morning couldn’t arrive soon enough. Windy corridors pushed his final steps out onto the upper deck of Candlestick Park. The crisp contrast of freshly cut green grass and manicured dirt seared into view; a mental photograph he would never lose. With a runner on in the bottom half of the 9th inning, the Giants’ 2nd baseman smashed a drive into deep center field and the crowd rose in unison. He stretched his neck, holding his breath collectively with the 40,000 in attendance until the ball cleared the wall — a Walk-off Homerun! He caught his mother’s eyes in the middle of the jubilee — what a birthday!

2. My Way (Usher) - Just one gift on Christmas Eve, that was the rule and mom would be the one choosing, of course! Gift wrap, ripped to shreds and reveals . . . a compact disc? What will we play this on? He and his sister sat, confused. Then, a smile, “ok, two gifts,” said mom. Those Walkman headphones rang with the smooth vocals and sexy beats of Usher. The beginning of a complex CD collection.

3. Differences (Ginuwine) - His back was firm against the gymnasium wall and the bass vibrated them both. Her body pressed into him in a way that said make this last forever. Sure, Sadie Hawkins was a dance, but aside from the posing for pictures they hadn’t left each other's arms all night. She leaned into his ear, that soft voice barley heard over music’s blare, this should be our song. With chests against one another, their young hearts slow danced into forever. Glad you came into my life.

Interlude - Recruits at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, are restricted from outside music.

4. Marine Corps Hymn - From the hills of Camp Pendleton to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, there were many rifles, but that one was his. It was his best friend and without each other, both were useless. He knew every last inch of that M16 service rifle — from the lower receiver’s buffer and spring, down to the bolt carrier’s firing pin. It was there, in the Marine Corps, where he would forge relationships worthy of combating Time. Chesty Puller and Smeadly Butler were also his brothers, but the whole thing was such a racket. He marched, covered and aligned, to E5 before his about-face back into the world, as a civilian.

5. Time (Pink Floyd) - Marine Corps recruits were restricted from music and just about anything else they came in with. He was several weeks in before realizing he couldn’t recall any of his favorite songs. They’d jammed those guys up with so much USMC schooling that all previous knowledge had ran for cover. Where had the previous version of him gone? Handwritten letters being the only means of outside communication, he added a special request in his next letter home. When the response returned, along with the box of protein bars, his mom had included her own handwritten letter. After a quick recap of recent happenings, there it was, at the bottom of the page . . . song lyrics! Home, home again. I like to be here when I can.

6. Yesterday (The Beatles) - A shadow hung over the funeral home; his mother’s ashes sat fifteen feet away in the urn his sisters had picked out. The lung cancer took her in under a year. Those 3,000 miles that separated California from North Carolina caused a delay in his finding out. His mother didn’t want to worry him, she’d said. So, just two months separated his learning the news and that 3AM phone call. Why she had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say. He had scaled The Reaper with a fully loaded pack, the final obstacle before becoming a Marine; he’d have crawled it any number of times for just a few more moments with her.

7. The Taste of Ink/Going Back to Cali (The Used & Biggie) - The music blasted louder than the stock speakers were meant to handle. Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps base faded in his rearview mirror for the final time. At last, it’s finally over. He was going going, back back, to Cali Cali. He rode waves into the west coast and back into school. The tactical combination of weather, women and the weed, sticky green, would create his civilian service rifle for repelling new enemies. Another Brick in the Wall he built to keep everyone out. Scholastic work forced his hand at writing and The Taste of Ink brought a new sense of peace.

8. Kaya (Bob Marley) - That women part of his new rifle transformed into woman when news of a new seed’s arrival took precedence. Dreams of finishing classes at an oceanside campus crashed before him. With each passing month of the pregnancy, the reality got harder to carry. The stickier part of his new rifle was no longer allowed in the house. He saw a therapist more and on his darkest days, hoped the baby wasn’t his. Shortly after learning it’s a girl, they chose her name: Kaia. It’s Hawaiian for the ocean, a reminder to never give up on his Dreams. It would be years after Kaia’s birth when they learned of Bob Marley’s album sharing the same title. Kaya is Jamaican slang for marijuana . . . God’s reminder that the sticky stuff built that home. On May 10th, a full week before her due date, Kaia’s mother awoke, feeling odd. Seven hours later, a perfect little girl was born. It was his mother’s birthday.