Kilian is Your Destiny

I am a fortunate son
of the twentieth assembly district.
Born and raised in the heart
of the land of steady habits.

Middletown has better nightlife,
(at least the kind the public is invited to)
but we can work on that.

It is more than nostalgia
that draws me back to my old haunts
along the shores
of the Rockledge Brook Flood Plain.

I saw Jaws amd Star Wars
in the Mall 1-2-3.
My neighbors and I watched
The Sound of Music
and An Officer and a Gentleman
at the Elm, and later the Elm 1-2.

My first communion was at St. Brigid's,
my confirmation was at St. Helena's.
Nothing could prepare me better
to challenge with conviction
the duplicity of a status quo gone awry.

On my Army weekends
I run around the football fields
of my youth,
where today play the children of my old teammates.
Where once I played to my heart's content
today I stare and worry about fractures
to an epiphyseal plate
and pray my kids opt for soccer.

Talcott was my Junior High.
Sedgwick was my middle school.
Would I be half the man I am today
if the closing of one set of doors
did not lead to the opening of the other?
Change is seldom easy,
but it is never avoidable.

I grew up playing
with nerf balls and frisbees
on Burnham and Fowler
when we played till our mothers rang their bells
calling us home for dinner.

Cable came first
and then the remote control.
ADD and obesity came later,
and this ill tide continues to rise today.

Kids wear helmets when they ride their bikes today.
If we wore them when
we played bicycle-polo through my mom's rock garden,
well, I might be a contender today.

I may never enjoy the privilege
of assuming the honorable titles
the law bestows on those
who win on election day.

But I have had my name called enough times on the Conard P.A.
that if I hear it again
I may unplug the microphone for shame.
If no reporters call,
no headlines misspell my name again,
it will suit me just fine.

Running for office is more of a thrill for your girlfriends
than it is for the mother of your wee children.
That is why my wife doesn't even know I am a candidate,
and I would ask everyone to help me keep this secret
for the sake of my marriage.

I worked harder than I knew I could
to become an RN.
My wife stayed home with a house full of kids
while I studied and practiced nursing.
She did not complain when I was away,
because she understood
if I did not become a person
whose life helps others
that half of me would not be there
even if I was home on time.

You got to be
who you got to be.
When you come from a place called Conard
and suit up in a soldier's uniform,
you have big shoes to fill,
but none are bigger than the ones you own and wear,
because you are the only one who can fill them.

Even if no one else knows what you did on any given day,
we all have to look in the mirror to our souls and ask,
how did I fill my shoes today?
Did I live up to the promise each day presents us?

My hair is not getting any thicker.
Maybe this nomination is just a half dead pony on the same track as thoroughbreds,
but this is the horse that has been offered to me today,
and I have no intention to decline a chance to ride again.

I am back in Elmwood.
And I am back in the saddle again.

John Kilian
endorsed candidate for the 20th Assembly District
Connecticut For Lieberman Party.