It’s okay,

you can put it on me.

I can take it.

I have taken this and more;

oh, so much more,

but I don’t want to claim it.

 

Let’s change the subject.

Do you remember when

we took LSD

and sat in the bus station?

We waited to buy tickets,

so we could go to California,

but we never did.

I’m not sure

if we even had enough money,

or enough acid,

but we sat there,

until security scared us off.

 

I’m sure this memory

is meaningless

to you,

but I always think about it

as the time

we almost ran away

to California.

 

I’ve still never been,

even after all these years.

I’ve travelled the world,

but I’ve never made that trip

down the Sunshine Coast.

 

Not that I wouldn’t go,

I know people there

and it would be cool,

but part of me

still believes

that I can run away

to California.

 

I like the idea.

 

Maybe I’ll go someday,

but until then,

I’ll always have that memory

of being righteously high

with my teenage friends,

waiting

to buy tickets

to California.

 

HG – 2019