We always knew
you’d have to get out
of town one of these years,
sheriff, but we kept holding on
to your jovial, home-spun humor
just in case the world somehow
turned the clock back
and you helped us toward
an infinity of honesty
justice, peacemaking, fair play
---too much to want, we ask.
Not as long as Andy said it
was possible. We believe.
Earl J. Wilcox writes about aging, baseball, literary icons, politics, and southern culture. His work appears in more than two dozen journals; he is a regular contributor to The New Verse News. More of Earl's poetry appears at his blog, Writing by Earl.
_____________________________________________________