Residual Solace

To realize that even if you get back to where you once were when you had an outside chance at mediocrity

your youth will have passed

and the nest that you hope for is a second blush of it

by the time that you will be in a position to attain even that, the tectonic plates will have pulled apart

and your youth will reside on the opposing plate.

New England

There is a charm to the place

That is mentioned in guidebooks

Thoreau and Dickinson and Melville and all those gables

And brave thoughts were once thought here

And I was drawn here as a young man imbued with Emerson

And I've been here long enough to recognize it as paved over horrifically

Skokie, Illinois with a wicked accent