Along the Way

(To a tune I wrote originally for
The Grand Canal by Robert Heinlein)

As evening gathers round me
And the sun prepares to rest,
The stabbing pain of unshed tears
Attacks my weary breast.
Along the trail that brought me here
The poignant memories die,
Like flowers in an early snow
Spat from a leaden sky.
Long gone the lips that said the words
My stony heart ignored,
Long gone the chance to give the love
Devotion so deserved.
True love's a ghost I barely glimpsed,
While anger's all too real;
The setting sun reminds me that
The years we have, we steal.
But sunrise follows sunset,
And my feet need not be clay:
I swear to be a better man
Along tomorrow's way!

—San Diego
11/10 and 14/2002