My115thDream

Poem - "This Time Around"

If these verses find you as I hope they will
Then you’ll see as you’re sitting right there,
Two bloodshot eyes that materialized
From the southern wintertime air.
A haggard mind and a one-of-a-kind
Taste for the grit of the night,
Two feet that are tired and a head that is wired
And won’t rest until wrong is set right.
Now on my way to another crusade
In the land of the rising sun,
For a taste of the fear to start off the year
That by now has already begun.
If you squint hard enough in just the right light
And gaze back over the years,
You might see a man with no map and no plan,
Untethered by foolish blind fears.
Sitting before you much like today
But under a different light,
With innocent eyes of youthful disaster
I was ready to conquer the night.
That first time out my quest was devout
For sinful sweet salvation,
Although at the time I didn’t know why,
But I yearned for emancipation.
My second journey was an orgy of life
From which I claim no exemption,
The third was merely a vague remembrance,
But this one is pure redemption.
I wish you could join me this time around
And share a few laughs with a friend,
But I know we’ll catch up a ways down the line
For I know we’re far from the end.
I wish you the best that fortune will bring
On your journey across the sea,
You’re as good of a friend as I’ll ever have
And I hope you’ll do one thing for me.
When the bright morning sun rises to find you
A stranger on a foreign shore,
Of all that I’ve said, remember these words,
And the rest you may choose to ignore.
When you grab your guitar and strike up a tune,
With those sad steel strings be handy,
Your music is sweeter and means so much more
Than a taste of the finest brandy,
I’ll hear every note in my head while you’re gone
Thousands of miles from here,
You, my friend, are truly my weakness,
And I your mutineer.