things to do.

1. Visit Roden Crater.
2. Backpack Europe.
3. Learn how to fly fish in Montana.
3A. Learn how to gut a fish, and cook it.
4. Publish an entire book of poetry.
5. Tango in Buenos Aires.
6. Paint everything.
7. Plant a tree. Fuck, plant a garden, and watch it grow.
8. Finish my Bachelor’s and Post Grad studies.
8A. study abroad.
9. Take an entire summer and road trip it across America, and live in my car, and take black and white pictures of everything.
10. Run a marathon.
11. Go on an African Safari.
12. Learn to cook.
13. Get stoned with Shooter Jennings.
14. Learn to speak another language fluently.
15. Travel: there- Australia, Thailand, Ireland, Peru, Chile, Egypt, here- Charleston, Livingston, Nashville, Galveston, the Keys, Boulder, everywhere…
16. Quit biting my nails.
17. Learn to play the guitar, and my banjo
18. Carnival in Rio.
19. Listen to jazz in New Orleans.
20. Graceland.
21. Hike the Smokies.
to be continued….

Sometimes it takes this:

to remind me that “death steals everything but our stories”. And maybe that face has been weathered, and worn and has cracks like the mountains that it entertains, and that entertain it, but at least they are as deep as the life that he lived. i could only hope for the same.

contentment.

the reflected star lights in your eye
sparkling on unknown waters
leaned heavily upon my
shoulders, yoke-like,
a load too heavy for my slightness.

I tried to fight this fight
although I’ve known
it ain’t a fair one,
although I’ve known
the odds aren’t betting odds.

but as the lush velvet curtains drew
and the tab was paid
and the cabs were called
and the word was spoken
the band changed its tempo

to that melancholy tune from afar…
the one that is bitter in its sweetness
and lovely in its slowness.
it pierced the air
piano key by piano key

pulling the air, sucking it in,
stabbing and stinging and searching
for that one perfect shot that connects,
the one that remedies,
the one that is just right for the job.

it had gone already
glancing past that strong chin
soaring just beyond that 
delicate brow
and settling right back where it began,

a universally collective sigh.