it was like quicksand
at first I wanted to drown in it
until I realized that it would
really **** me

This feeling equates to the pain I felt all those years. Why now?

I stole a copy
of The Back Country
when I was sixteen
and it set me
upon the Poet's Road.

You signed it
for my friend
while I was
far away at war.

After most
of a lifetime,
I have it still.

May your
mountains and rivers
never end.

  ~mce