Flash-Backs At Forty-One

Memories sharpen with hastening years… Sand-box and shovel and toys And tree-forts and pranks, and my Sunday-school thanks, Little boy yearnings and joys. Later, Tom Sawyer’s the would-be Don Juan, Highways, and one-night hotels. Cheap beer at the bar. And an unlucky star Lighting those furnished room hells. Finally, faces of long-ago friends Focus, recede and return; One dead and some wed…souvenirs in my head. Brilliant memories burn Sweeter than incense, within the mind’s urn.