POEM - And the Beat Goes On: 1991

Spent that year

Knocking on doors

Handing out books

Meeting new people

Then moving

From the city

To the high desert

To a different high desert

Then back down to the city

Where it all started

With a roller-coaster

Of emotions and experiences

Happy for the bright times

Like dinner with the Glen(Glynn)s

As I the upstart

Battled Sgt. Slaughter

On the Scrabble field

After perfectly, cooked meat eats

Then later that year

I paused in the arid winds

Looked skyward over Palmdale

As the Stealth Bomber flew

Overhead going through its maneuvers

Would I find peace later

In the deceptively named

Town of Apple Valley

Near the man who kept Siberian Tigers

And walked them through the desert

Or would it be back on the mean streets

Back to San Bernardino

To familiar places I know

But people who had changed entirely

Situations I thought permanent

Had fizzled and frayed

Lost focus and rearranged

From where I had left them

Just a year and a half before

And I learned that lesson

The one where I couldn’t control

What was going to happen

And I was only a visitor

On temporary loan

Meant to say some words

Bring some joy

Then evaporate from the story line

To let those that remain

Find the strength

To stand up on their own