Once I used to go out on the tracks
and camp with old Leroy
build a fire with railroad ties
howl at the world
with a vengeance, of fire
till trains went by
we used to smoke our pot
talk to friends of what was not
it’s a hard world to be alive
burning embers and ties
the smoke upon their eyes
Every night the man in the hat would walk by
staring at the moon
I saw him in town
the day the old man died
early morn 21, June
Leroy would say “We’ll never get old”
and we would sing and prance
like a shaman would
and the tribe would sing
till troubled days
shall drift away
– Carl S. Karcher