1964

1964

There was this other book,

the year I met Karen,

seminal, early, on my own,

but how did I find it,

and I thought I was still

at home, and in high school--

but the publication date

doesn't lie--which means

I was breathing it

even on that first date,

that I carried it too,

with those other books

into the army, basic training,

Panama, and Viet Nam,

that I was that determined

when I met her

that determined

to live like this

another stone

leading me into that

other water,

that oxygen lake

how could either

of us have known

Jim Bodeen

2-4 August 2018