Packing Luggage for a Lifetime

A box in my bicycle basket,

Was in route to my favorite tree…

To sway in the upper branches

Like a flag waving the secrets in me.

Later in the eighth grade,

Stashed addresses under the ashtrays,

In the Pontiac Station wagon,

Were my plans for future days.

My GTO in high school,

Hid my life under the spare tire.

Every party contact, dirty joke and picture

And future plans yet to conspire. 

I packed my dreams in a suitcase

For that trip to college on a plane.

Returning with three times the luggage;

Dreams matured, yet much the same.

Phone numbers on bar napkins,

Photos marked with hand drawn hearts;

Letters promising forever and a day,

Incinerated when the promise departs.

So many boxes of old memories,

Deciding what to toss away…

These paper copies of my memories

Are in my mind to stay.

I’ll be a hitchhiker my next journey,

Slipping away into the night…

All this baggage no longer needed,

I'm obliged to travel light.

Time requires far less luggage,

As you age and travel twice as far,

Past local highways through the universe

Onward to that distant star.