By the Wayside
By the Wayside
from Belief by Les Wicks
Over the drinks
Alise started discussing “us veterans”
as though we had conquered something real.
There were enough stories that day,
our backs bent, the calcium dust we shed as we struggle on towards dotage.
There’s a form of war universally fought against the years.
She had a hit in the 80’s.
Staunch, she faces this foe that always defeats
but that’s not the point.
Later, look her up on google, 251734 results.
Then think back her ex-lover Janet
that careless brilliance the photographs, poems
her singing voice raw with gitanes & clarity.
I think about the “fallen”,
those casualties to narrative,
the ones who shone with promise flared a few years
then disappeared.
…