Standing on the Friendship Bridge,
trying to find my reflection in the moody red.
Reflecting on the stream of things I remember
Patricia Owens once said.
She said,
take it on the chin without a tear in your eye.
Put it on the clothes,
to your chest,
don't keep it on the slide.
Everything you get, turn around and give.
Do that and you'll be the greatest to ever live.
Walking in East Grand Forks,
picturing all the houses that used to be.
The cafe up at the point that would sometimes
give you a slice of lemon meringue pie for free.
I've often only thought about what my family went through,
but now that I'm over here I can say I can feel you too.
27 years went by just like that.
Lynn Stiles, to you I tip my hat.
If
you're looking for something to believe in to push away life's heavy,
dreary haze.
Watch them pull out albino catfish from
the mud during the low summer dog days.
I wonder about all the things that will come along
with me when there's no space on my punch card to fill.
You told me you're proud of me,
you call me your friend,
and that's something I'll hold on to until the end.
I look you in the eye,
and as I do a couple tears,
loosely jaw.
Hell on a jet ski down a flooded street,
saving the books from the synagogue.
Being great like that means you put yourself in harm's way,
but going back to something
what I think Patricia was trying to say.
Except there's no holding our feelings back
no more,
then you can hold the river from rising up out of its shore.