by John Kendall Hawkins
.
It doesn't get any better than this.
It really doesn't. Suck it up. Move on.
Ol' Heraclitus on the Mippisiss,
unsame river under him. Shove on,
he says, mark twain, mark anything you please,
but don't mark cards on my river boat queen;
don't be 'all in' like some florid Big Cheese;
you gotta stay within the Golden Mean.
Rivers change, but men do not easily.
Pilots need to be one with the river,
panpsychics who navigate queasily
while the gamblers sleep it off, rest the liver.
It doesn't get any better than this:
a steamboat pilot following his bliss.
