st. michael's day

Ides
forever changed
Janus would be proud,
the way you smile back
and look ahead.

earnestly plotting course
across deserts
and dinner tables
through mountains frosted
with the ghosts
of bb gun fights passed,
and yards guarded
by rattlesnakes,
home games on East 161st
and family beamed by satelite.

earnest,
like the six inch deep river
still somehow
winding its way through
land so thirsty
it would grab a straw
and slurp it dry.

earnest,
like a
moviewildwest
lawman
honestly going about
the business
of doing right.

earnest,
like a cactus
defying odds and saying,
yeah, i'll grow here.
what's it to ya?

painstakingly
cutting a path,
laying roots,
making your play
and seeing it through.

you're the one, Mike.