Here's to you, Grasshopper

“Don’t wake a sleeping bear” they say –

But sometimes the bear

Wants to be awakened.

__________________________________________

He had coarse skin

And hard yellow nails

He looked older than

He was.

He had a curt tongue and

Steely stare

He trusted no one.

He was cold,

He was tired –

He had regrets,

Unforgiven

 

But I saw something

More…

 

I felt his Soul

At the table,

As he played

Solitaire

 

He wished for nothing

Or so it seemed—

But another drink and

Another day.

But if you dared to

Look in his eyes

Way down deep

In his eyes…

It was there—

All of it

 

This old, coarse

Unforgiving

Stubborn

Son of a bitch

Was the closest

Thing to real

You will ever

Find.

 

 

I wish I could

Sit with him again

And ask all those

Things I wondered...

 

 

And have the guts

To meet his stare

And maybe

Hold his hand.

 

____________________________

For my old friend,

Johnny Russell