Being BaldBil

This was written in 2002 a few years after I was extracted from Lawrence and had recovered enough from the most dangerous days of my life. How and why I wasn't killed in that town I will never know. I certainly did things that would have deserved a violent end but it wasn't in the cards.

A GRADUAL WALK

Lawrence is gritty and real

pretense has no place,

facades all fail to stand

in a city of primal needs.

Work brought me there

a good good job and a good wage.

I knew who I was

but not what I was to be.

The streets were there of course

they always had been,

at first I didn't notice

the subtle way they called.

Each morning I drove Broadway

to greet the day and its events.

Nights found me driving

on a northward journey home.

As time moved on it's schedule

I found the streets in my eye.

Dirty and nasty as they were

the attraction would not be denied.

From the loading dock could I see

all there was that interested.

Young girls displaying their wares

and plying their trade.

The call slowly came to notice

as the light of the street

began to glow more brightly

in the recesses of my mind.

Slowly my resistance waned

and I began the gradual walk

into the warm and total embrace

of a life I had never known.