Mike Bayles Poet Narrative

Someday I’ll Go Back to Madison

I hit the snooze alarm
and my body stirs
as I linger in bed.

My chest bears the weight
of memories and desires.
I’m living for today
but in every cell, I feel
something greater.

The mid-morning sun
peaks through the window.
I listen to a litany
of unfinished conversations
of the women I lost.
but hear the seduction of a place
far beyond four walls of my loft.

I reside on a dead-end
for now, but a soft voice
says all roads
lead to Madison,
a place I’ve seen
and I long to find it again
on a day of leisure.

My plans to move there 
for graduate school ended
and I went to a place
where dreams died

and boring routines
carried me through life.

A fine coat of snow
in the back yard lingers
and I shiver in a draft

but o how in summer
the lakes in Madison glisten.

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Gershon Wolf February 8, 2026 at 9:00 PM Hope Paul Soglin is not the Mayor anymore. lol. Went to high school with his younger sister, Debbie... I say, Don't go back. It's like Rebecca Gibbs in the third Act of 'Our Town' when she goes back to Grover's Corners --- only Madison is even more disappointing... except for the lakes, I grant you. ~ gw