REIMAGINING DON QUIXOTE

                                               1
Ah youth, been down roads in my life unable to keep track
I can't count them all, roads with names some without
a few with famous names, still others half as much, I
have travelled them all, and in time on a course predicted
whether or not I cared to go, I watched the pavement turn
into simple dirt paths, from driving a four lane highway
at times being so **** reckless, and still, I  have walked  
other paths too that have taken me in, sometimes not leading me
out so as I search for a clarity I need to take a step back  
                                                2
there were times in my life I was very rich, with a woman
who adored me, I had the best of what life had to offer
as I worked my *** off to keep what was mine, until the
day the bottom of this world fell away, I lost everything
and I found myself homeless, living off the street, knowing
fear and anxiety, not having a place to sleep or where
my next meal would come from, I came to understand pain
                                                  3
so here I am once more, what is left, with a perspective of
age and time, I am now a soldier this time around not ready to give
in or give up to seek what's next, to look for any adventures
bigger than my life, embark on next steps as I turn inward
to everything I have known, to become a simple wanderer
a man having a name ageless, one who follows the stars, and
sleeps on the ground ready to peek around corners, to be happy
in my own skin, settling on serendipity while changing the course
of the rest of my life, as I shake off the dust, call me Don Quixote

by Michael Perry