One of the Magi

Decided to go visit the long-lost relatives I'd left when I broke away from family To find myself as a teenager. You can never enter the same river twice Wanted to try and pick up the thread Of lost decades, catch up, hang out, break bread Wanted to renew contact, like mum said Progress has a cost - loss is the price It was winter: roads were blocked with snow And normal temperature dropped way below - The very dead of winter . And the car - worn out fanbelt lost, Engine coughing, tires spinning in the frost; Other drivers were rude, without inhibitions, And fractious in the icy conditions. All the hotels were filled in a trice And in any case charging high prices. You can never enter the same river twice I regretted leaving my warm apartment in Queens The little Italian restaurants and waitresses in their teens The journey seemed to be just a foolish waste of gasoline Progress has a cost - loss is the price But I could tell I was getting closer to the old place, Then at dawn I came down to a temperate valley, Free of snow, with a river and a water mill and three trees. I checked at the bar in town But there was no information and so I continued, And I found the the relatives’ place in the evening You can never enter the same river twice It wasn’t really that great of a reprise Barely satisfactory to appease them by degrees With them I was no longer at ease Progress has a cost - loss is the price Well, that was a long time ago and I would do it again Even though seeing these relatives Wasn’t really all the fun I’d thought. Turns out I had changed so much You can never enter the same river twice It was strange even after we shared our meal Just to know how differently they and I could feel To me they were now like strangers real Progress has a cost - loss is the price Entered in Debbie Guzzi's contest Based on Eliot's JOURNEY OF THE MAGI (6 lines have Eliot quotes)