Best of the Welcome Columns


Best of the Welcome Columns

Author: Compton, Cliff
A Poem

Bill Wilheim I don’t think they make them like that anymore In this land of plenty Where gold is an albatross that hangs around the neck of the ungrateful Where we think our good fortune falls from trees Instead of from the storehouse of the creator And it annoys us to have to bend over to pick it up As it lays on the ground And it didn’t come easy for him This humble man who always seemed surprised at his measure of success Grateful for the opportunity To be what he worked so hard to be Defending and protecting Those who couldn’t defend or protect themselves Riding that black and white Harley down the freeways of L.A.Back when you could ride Without choking on the smog A small group of groundbreakers Keeping the peace, driving fast, where one wrong turn Or one drunk driver Would send you to the undertaker And he saw things that give a strong man nightmares And never shrunk away from them or shirked what had to be done And never thought more of himself Than what he was And was always grateful For the day And he’d sit outside of his silver airstream In his golden years With his wife Ruby june In his cool black cowboy hat Holding his Martin Welcoming whoever came by Ready with a story Ready with a song A little flat picking’ A cup of coffee And he wrote a column in the bluegrass breakdown About his bluegrass friends And there were a lot of them And I was one of them Jan 2010 (cliff Compton)

Posted: 1/29/2011