HIGH OLD TIME

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads--d'Verse Poets Pub

In a campground
somewhere in Utah
(memory fades)
setting up my tent
some older folks
occupying the adjacent space
with a big  RV
looked like a couple 
of married couples
and "Mother"
likely in her eighties
along for the ride
sitting around
boozin' it up and
havin' a high old time
convivial conversation
and laughing
so much laughing
ringing through the pines

Their own private
Margaritaville

And I thought good for them
they're happy, man
while simultaneously remembering
some statistic about alcohol abuse
being rampant among the senior population
and I thought
well 
who has a better reason
ya know
don't need to explain that
don't need to explain it at all
suffice it to say
that for a few hours
maybe they were able to forget
or even forgive

Watching the cold stars emerge
it was time to turn in

Then sometime during the night
must have been about 2 a.m.
there was a commotion
over in the RV
and someone said
"Mother fell"
and disoriented voices repeated it

Mother fell

Prolly trying to make her way to the head 
in the dark
but you could tell it wasn't good

And then the ambulance was on its way
to come and collect her
their idyllic forest getaway
soon to be a rude awakening
of glaring emergency room lights
that nice rosy glow
of a few hours back
now faded
like a long ago dream
of happily ever after