To Doug
You’re aging gracefully
your natural ease, masking
your anxieties, never wearing
your heart on
your sleeve, keeping all cards close to
your vest yet not alienating never seeming
you’re less than warm, storyteller, yes, but
you’re a good listener, mockless, unironic, nonbelittling
you’re a safe haven for confession
you prefer reflection to reaction
you avoid raw moments of chaos
you process thoroughly prior to delivery
you attempt to wrestle angst to the ground before the opening bell.
A safe place
carved out over every year since high school
so cautious, so careful, so prudent (first RRSP – 1974).
Yet you’ve tasted the ecstasy
of release in music, the redemptive power three chords offer
you knew the voice of the muse, the call of the blues, but never turned
up the volume.
Your mirror looks back at
you with quiet grace, a peaceful place
your order, common sense, balanced by
the vicarious anarchy of rock and roll.
Music through head phones
reaches into your bones, but can it touch your heart?
Your soul may be pacified, but is it satisfied?
Please understand,
I ask not to offend, you have much I envy,
by staying the course of clearly marked road
you’ve adroitly avoided so many pitfalls, so many
pits have I fallen into through those years you smoothed
your path.
Perhaps this seems
trite, Doug’s Life Lite, and so
it must be, from the outside looking in.
Not for me to sneer
at the comforts of the middle class
at the man who never made an enemy
kept those friends who walk his path close
all needs met, never fearing about your next meal
a stable, solid, unwavering stroll through your life; it
suits you, Doug,
suits the boy in school who
never offended, lots of friends but none too close
never let them in too far.
Now, when you express
your mild discontents, do you feel the pull
of recklessness, wild abandon, foolish jumps or stupid stumbles
the blind need
to test oneself in a fast lane
to step off the fog-shrouded cliff and pray for safe landing?
Yours is to stay
in one place, rooting like a tree
ever firmer, ever taller, commanding ever more space
yours is a cumulative wisdom
earned only through staying the course
the reward is in knowing what comes next
must be
a blessing, I guess.
Robert Douglas Hickey |
