Looking Back

by Jesse Coghill
Poet Farmer from Jordan, MN

I think upon my misspent youth
And how we tampered with the truth,
The many pints of beer we quaffed,
The ribald jokes, oh, how we laughed.
We flirted shamelessly with sin,
But I would not go back again.

I think of many girls we knew,
And, yes, they numbered quite a few --
Katie, Maggie, Kelly, and Min,
The big, the small, we loved them all,
But I would not go back again.

Time marching on and youth is gone,
I have to look back with a grin
At all-night bouts with ale and stout,
But I would not go back again.

The gang has mostly moved or died,
Over spilt milk I have not cried.
They were my true and bosom friends,
But I would not go back again.

Jim was killed in an auto wreck,
Left behind a widow and son.
Joe caught his wife with a stranger
And blew out his brains with a gun.

There's Johnny and his Midas touch
That left him withered, old, and cold.
He sold his soul to the devil,
And worships the silver and gold.

I turned out the best of the lot,
Don't owe a cent for what I got.
I stuck it out through thick and thin,
And I would not go back again.