Enemy.

DRINKING SONG

I want to die in the saddle. An enemy of civilization,

I want to walk around in the woods, fish and drink.

I'm going to be a child about it and I can't help it, I was

born this way and it makes me very happy to fish and

               drink.

I left when it was still dark and walked on the path to the

river, the Yellow Dog, where I spent the day fishing

               and drinking.

After she left me and I quit my job and wept for a year and

all my poems were born dead, I decided I would only

               fish and drink.

Water will never leave earth and whiskey is good for the

               brain.

What else am I supposed to do in these last days but fish

               and drink?

In the river was a trout and I was on the bank, my heart

               in my

chest, clouds above, she was in NY forever and I, fishing

               and drinking.

Jim Harrison