GREYBEARD HOMEBOY VISIT

sweet dreamy return, small hometown childhood
turf,

slowly motoring back road thin highway ribbon,
spring rye grass spouting through concrete cracks,
pothole crater edges,

passing tri-level mailboxes, suburban house
beautiful riverside manses, once young playmates
now local successes,

forsaking multi-lane interstate highway rush,
cloverleaf  "off ramp" exit and detour,

avoiding penetrator strip city entry, colonel's
fried chicken, pizza hut, taco bell, "booze-r-us"
fast paced civilization progress,

finding vague familiar wrinkled faces, hair
grey, thinning, momentary shock, "am i old like
them,"

thinking long lost prodigal home, maybe staying,
becoming accepted fixture like village idiot, community
stray mutt, new town drunk,

pitying, "hey, poet, here's a couple of bucks,
have a cold-un or three on me tonight, eh,"

polite, embarrassed, "sorry, no, can't have a
beer, gotta get home, wife, something to do," replies,

solid small town citizens, like eternal concrete
civil war soldier statue, bronze cemetery plaques of
past honorable notables,

regular early morning black coffee brain jump
starts, rallying fuel for smoldering, raw nerve
ends,

couple cans of warm suds, stale brown bottle
ethers couchside, first dawn rescue,

calming liquid for another journey into childhood
past, chapters of adolescent pain, disappointments,

hoping this time, break through dark forest shadows,
rediscover yellow brick road, finally reach oz,

quietly knowing time rapidly running out, another
"long white" winter approaching, finish near.