Honky Tonk Butterflies

I only truly loved once

But she wasn't mine

To love

Never found another

That was quite the same

At all

So it was down the road

Once again

Till the next stop

In some old town

Looking for

 A Honky Tonk Butterfly

 To pretend to love

And fill the empty night

Ghost

You came again at the darkest hour

It has been so long

Foolishly I thought you had been banished

Are you beckoning me yet again

Even though I am bent from road weariness

The desire for journeys

Now just an old whisper in my soul

Despite this your voice

Still rings the bells in my mind
Trying to draw me back
With watery images of high times
A narrow vision of decades gone by
Hope comes at dawn
And a harsh light of reality
That will push your influence
Into the background  of the past
Where you belong

Alone But Never Lonely

Even in the body of a child

Arms length he kept all

There was comfort there

Where no one encroached upon his mind space

Crowded playground avoided

Hidden places in the woods embraced

They zigged while he zagged

Through life and times
Gypsy of the road it was ordained
Where days and weeks
The only company
His mind, his soul
The hum of eighteen wheels
Riding past populated concrete canyons
Always moving
Until tired he could move no more
Coming to rest
In his private place
Well beyond the surging crowds