Old friend
“Tell me now, old friend, when you gonna let me be?” The Allman Brothers Band
I don’t quite know how it came to this,
but if I have to take up arms against you
I’ll draw them from the auction houses
and antique shops; old muskets, sabres.
I’ll be relieved when I can’t find, let
alone afford them, and I’ll grow calm.
Gone are our nights of righting the world,
of drinking like we were bailing it out –
we knew too much about each other
and nothing at all of ourselves.
Richie McCaffrey’s collection Cairn was published recently by Nine Arches Press