My Dreams at Night

Alone in fitful dreams at night,

I hike through unexplored places…

Risking safety in hopes to find

Lost friends and familiar faces.

Gazing from highest mountain tops,

Down into the deepest valleys…

I have also explored major city streets,

Also, the smallest town’s back alleys.

Sometimes the cherished memories,

Will not survive one’s dreams at all.

Many will simply disappear,

As Aging diminishes one’s recall.

Meanwhile there are crevices,

And dark Valleys left to explore

The beauty calls "You’re getting warmer",

So I continue to unearth more.

There are tide pools along the journey,

Where the tiniest life exists…

Yet I still have the audacity…

To find a human I can’t resist.

Waking Up Elderly

I used to reinvent myself,

Every five to seven years…

I thought I could out run the clock.

Escaping my growing old fears.

I was a farmer, fireman, retailer,

A teacher and state employee…

Who looked into the mirror one day,

To see an elderly, delusional boy.

I moved to Whidbey Island;

The magic stalled me twenty-five years...

I woke up aged, almost seventy,

Failing to outrun my lifelong fears.

Time Warp

I was alone on Christmas Eve,

Yet I wanted to celebrate.

I asked a coworker, also alone

On a very last minute date.

We started at our favorite bar,

Then after slamming a few drinks down,

We saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show,

Was the only late show in town.

We spent the first hour cowering,

Assaulted by squirt guns and rice…

Then lured into an alien sex cult

Empowered by murder and vice.

We both were speechless in the end,

Those at home were still gift wrappin’.

Judy, breaking the silence said,

“What the fuck just happened”?

Just for the record…we went again…and again!  RIP Judie Michael