I live in a quaint little town
In a wink or a blink,
you’ll drive right through
There’s not much to see but lots to do

Take a good look around
we have two parks in town
One; the senior center park
Summer Friday night music til dark

Margaret Polk Park Community build
Baseball, diamonds, and a soccer field
A quarter of a mile path around
is where the dogs’s path can be found

Wildflowers as far as the eye can see
The edge of the forest a fallen tree
A river runs through the northern side
Nooks and crannies for Deer to live hide

Motocross bicycle course for all ages
competition in qualifying stages
A wonderful event on Fourth of July
Fireworks, food stations, watching the sky

Watermelon slices Practice your song
Center stage performances all day long
Face painting Dancers singers, bands
Our great experiment by God’s hands

The annual Damboree highlight of the year
Celebrate the Dam completion beers cheer
Mining for Gold, Rush to Northern Cali
  three encampments called Central Valley.

A Tourist Store find trinkets galore to take
Boating, camping playing on Shasta Lake
This tiny town now has a Dollar Store
Five marijuana dispensaries not much more

One and only Shasta Damboree
Cool April nights car show to see
Asphalt, cowboy’s Pancake breakfast
Veteran’s Parade the celebration blast


Saturday night music in the park
Starts at afternoon until dark
Monthly craft displays
Handmade goods amaze

We have a pet Mayer YES, I say smugly
A seven year old pug named Pugly
The pet mayor contest a fundraiser creates
A Children’s Christmas party Fashion plate

300 gifts to families of our community
Our tiny town no change in 30 yrs of unity
A moratorium on growth we cherished
Sadly, that philosophy has parish

Plans demand. Homeless integration
Tare down homes for new segregation
Build skyscrapers box dwelling
New Drug communities are swelling

Funny how it seemed to work.
I got up every day and did
Everything on my mental list.
I chugged and huffed along at it
’Til it was time to pull the plug
And see what sleep could offer.

I made new friends along the way
And lost a few for things
I did and did not do.
I had success and failures too
With mostly humdrum in between
But I managed to leave a trace of me.

Funny how I wound up here at last
Life happened unbeknownst to me
With things that came and went by me
Devouring hours and days and months
That blurred the seasons and my goals
And left me here unwinding it.

Would I go back and rearrange
The way I made my daily choices
If that was somehow possible?
Too much is unbeknownst to me
to chance losing all the good there was
To possIbly erase the bad.
I’ll let the past remain the past.
ljm

The pages, they turn
Each chapter, each verse
A description, in letters
Invested, immersed
Will the plot thicken?
Will the story unfold?
Will the ending be happy?
Or bitter, and cold?
Will there be a sequel?
Are the answers revealed?
A book for the ages
When opened, unsealed