a butter year's worth

with one pass
may as well run like a wagging dog
wild in joy in the wind
and do what you can
with what you've got

when i wrote songs
i spent too many hours repeating them
trying to hold all of them in my head
keeping the old ones familiar

getting poems right seems more to the point
i can work words back and forth
don't have to play them in a straight line
and when i'm done they stay there

then anyone can pick them up exactly
not like a song
that you have to play or listen to
beginning to end

words you can play with
then take them along in your head
that's packing light
even a whole butter year's worth