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Over a reunion dinner a couple of weeks ago, my long lost friend, Smith Chabelita handed me a 232-word biographical sketch she had written, inspired somewhat by having read some of my chapters. One thing she regretted was running from friends (I believe that's how she put it) and wondered what my experience was along that thread. Not oddly enough, it is something that I think about and have thought about often for years. I am always leaving stuff behind: people, possessions, anchorage, opportunity, stability. I don't know why, but I wrote History! Romance! many years ago as I pondered that very self-destructive, selfish and reckless way of being.
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HISTORY! ROMANCE!
Somber he travels a half-empty lifetime
Full only where pain is frozen and still
Onward thru goodbyes at edges of pavement
Waving downcast to plans unfulfilled
Watching the days drift and go out the window
Walking the night late when no one else goes
Standing by silent as one dreamy smile
(in echoes thru canyons out beyond the highway)
finds the adventuresome man-seeking child
History! Romance!
Once there were pages and knights
Kings and queens
All in bright colors
The uncommon light of their dreams
Stirring now somehow, ageless, young patterns play
Wistful then aimless and then overjoyed
Anticipating that each moment maybe like thunder comes
Rumbling down from horizons
Advancing these young stallions retake the land
Where boys playing army had plundered by hand
Without cannon fire without gangrene or spies
Battalions die laughing and retreat in sighs
[And soon baby winks
Chubby mom is all happy
And even old daddy is saying hello
To lazy things (clouds)
Drinking up in the sky]