BOYHOOD BILDUNGSROMAN

Once upon a time—

Back when I was a kid

Growing up west of town

On Old Highway 50

Long before new Hwy 50—

And Interstate 335 the old

Thirties Depression highway

Past my mother’s home

My grandfather was a—

County commissioner who

Didn’t last very long since

He didn’t take bribes

Bridge and road contracts—

Could be very lucrative for

Town officials on the take

But Walter Larken wasn’t

I’d wake up way out—

There on my grandparent’s

Place listening to the lonely

Doodlebug late at night

The Santa Fe tracks—

Shiny in the moonlight

Down south of us calling

To me late in the night

Boyhood RFD memories—

Smell of cattle shit east

Whiffing from the nearby

Anderson feed lots

Emporia a cattle-town—

Tall grass prairie running

All the way to Strong City

Lonely Z Bar Ranch nights

It was during the war—

My pilot father in Europe

My mother living on base

Me with my grandparents

Now they’re all gone—

The Santa Fe train station

No longer there, just the

Steel rails east & westward