We have been here before
For one breathless instant,
The world hung in the balance,
Then, shrugging its shoulders,
Looked off and walked away,
Already intent on resuming
Its all too wicked ways, while
Offering up a well-meaning
Excuse for why things always
Have to be as they ever were
From time immemorial until
The very end of time, in some
Dusty, dingy future too grim
To be the product of a fevered
Imagination, too real to be less
Than the reality we create,
Lacking a belief in possibilities.
Back Roads, Ghost Towns
I miss the wide open spaces
The places between here and there
On the road again to find out
Where the white line leads.
Let me follow the back roads
Once more, thru small towns
Drifting along at a much slower speed,
With no particular place to go or be.
Blown by a wayward wind, tumbling
Across the desert to places long
Forgotten, slipping away to a past
That no one remembers any more.
Lingering over onemore cup of coffee,
In a roadside café, watching the local
Traffic move slowly by, unbothered
By the pressures of the modern world.
The places I love best are the ones
Hardest to get to, well off the beaten
Track, visited only by those others like
Me, those who love a fast fading world.
When I join history’s parade, marching
Off the way of all things, raise a glass
To me, in some local bar, with all those
Wh happen to be in town that night.
I miss the wide open spaces, fenced
Off now and bypassed by the interstate,
Lonely, dusty towns and scenic spots,
That once made America wonderful.
Searching for Meaning
What will I leave, when I stagger off this mortal coil?
Only a fleeting memory, my slate too quickly wiped clean,
Forgotten among the uncountable numbers who have passed
This way before and after, merely a cipher lost in a number,
Immeasurable and incomprehensible, one more lost sheep
In a herd of such vast size, I am only one among the many.
Like so many others, I will leave behind no lasting mark
On History, no great works that recall my name clearly
To generations of oncoming students and scholars seeking
To understand my reasons or the inspirations that drove
Me to stand out in the crowd; alas, will all I have ever done
Result in nothing more than a few scattered recollections?
One day, the world will turn without me, continuing on its course
As if I had never been, the sun still shining merrily in the sky,
The wind whistling through the cracks I once peered curiously
Into, seeking answers or amusements to suit my own mind’s pleasure,
Following the path my footsteps had long, long ago set me on,
A path that lead me hither and yon, until I reached this place.
Now I have set in motion two lives that will carry on from here,
Taking from me what they have absorbed, knowingly, as well as
That which the mystery of life has decided for them to take,
As they each make their own way, along their own paths, until
Some future time when they pass the mantle on to some new
Charges, to carry on who we were, into what will inevitably be.
Standing along side the great mother-road of life, from babies
To geezers, I look back at those who brought me here, and peer
Blindly ahead at where our vein of humanity will go from here,
Wondering at the meaning of it all, posing the great questions
We all ponder, no doubt futilely, as the world blithely continues on,
Spinning madly around the sun, ticking off the moments of eternity.
