A Looking Glass

Sometimes I see Florida
Lizards on my lanais.
Dewdrops on the windshield.
A quiet ride
as the boats rocked
against the docks.

Could I go there?
Could I go home again?
A question answered
so many times
in my repeating mind
that I wonder if I'm able
to learn lessons.

Florida
sits there
with the three years
it gave to me.
In the days that changed me
More stories from
those three years
more friends
and more regrets
than some
could add up
in a life.

And like any man
with glory days
to point backwards at,
sometimes it sneaks up on me,
Florida's De La Noco,
A dumb young man wrapped in his hubris.
Was it the weather that I loved
or my certainty
that days would never be
quite like they turned out.

So I say
goodbye
to Florida.
Knowing that
I never quite can
shake that thought
from sneaking up again.

I would watch the lizards
stand and salute the sun.
And to this day
I do the same.
I could never quite leave Florida.
I carry it with me.

Until Tomorrow...