A New Backyard—a New Spring

Last year, I wrote of sitting in
my backyard one morning in the Spring;
It is only fitting that I
do so again my friends,
in the Year of our Lord 2010.

Now that yard is gone to me
as I have gone from it
I sit by the river
in the morning given to me
Outside the tent given to me
In this chair I found as I
I look around.

Yet I find myself calm and
more content than I was
in those days of family
and paying rent on that backyard
in which to sit and think
sit and drink my coffee
with vodka on the side.

I am no longer hiding behind fences
the world is my backyard now
and while this life is hard
in ways the old one was not
I am shot of all the worries
that came with the false sense of
Security provided by families and fences.

I made my coffee on a campfire this morning
got smoke in my eyes but
somehow the coffee tastes better
and I find I don't need vodka
on the side anymore
to get through the day.

Instead of
looking at a red Japanese Maple
as I listen to the birds trilling
whistling, sinnging the day
into being, I look at thickets of
new blooming trees, dock, and nettle.

I can hear the fish jumping behind
a screen of trees and I wonder if
the rain will follow this
mellow breeze that has begun
to flow through my refuge
here by the river.

I can hear the traffic on the bridge
upstream and it seems true
that life is but a dream sometimes
and sometimes we wake
to realize what we thought real
has really been faked.

That maybe it is not I
who have flaked out and faded
faded away—that maybe I
was fading but now my light
is burning through the bushel
again my friends

I am left with this sense
that all is right in the world
and all manner of things are well
while the life I left behind at times
seems little different than hell
for all the beauty of being
alive in the spring.

Still, In the morning
in the spring of the year
the river burbles along, the fish jump
the birds trill, and whistle and sing
the day into being while I
I look up at blossoming trees
smoke a cigarette and drink
a cup of coffee
In the morning, in  the Spring.