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Duane Koukol: Goodbye, Joe

To the editor:

Many years ago with a little help from a friend,

We piled in the old blue van.



She said she knew where Joe lived.

We first stopped in Crawford, a little restaurant.



It was Joe’s place. We asked the waitress, with a smile,

“Is Joe in?” She said she hadn’t seen him in a while.

We had burgers and fries.

My friend said, “Check out the back.”

I walked into a Kiwanis meeting room.

But there on the dark walls.

With no lights, in utter silence.

“Oh, wow!” I think were the words I said!

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

On dark paneled walls, gold, silver and platinum

Joe’s legacy, hidden away in the dark.

Paying the waitress, still in a state of awe,

I drove down a plowed country road

To a 15-foot wall of snow.

A fancy open gate and a mansion in the trees

We tried to turn around with the old blue van.

“We’re stuck in Joe’s driveway — Oh, whee!”

As the mud-grips finally caught

Now on firm gravel road, I stopped.

A quarter mile out in a snowy meadow,

On the other side of the road from the house,

All by himself stood a big, black dog.

He crouched down, hiding in the fields of snow.

I looked at my friend, and whispered

“On one side lives an English man.

On the other, a mad dog, don’t you know?”

Now on my way to Delta I see

The pointed mountain I call Joe’s Mountain.

At least, that’s what it is to me.

“Do I still figure in your life? Yes, Joe, and our goodbyes!”

And, if you are ever in Crawford,

Stop by, for burger and fries.

Duane Koukol

Craig


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