All travel may carry its dangers
whether driving the Mid-East
wary of terrorist ambushes,
evading pickpockets in Vegas
or dreaming of falling from
the rim of a canyon trail.
But home has better odds
of growing dull and fat
and never knowing the thrill
of daylight nights in the Drake
on watch for silent icebergs
or crossing the desert waste
at a hundred miles per hour
to catch a magnificent sunset.
Life worth living carries risk;
keeping safe is as slowly lethal
as the crumbling ashes at the end
of smoldering cancerous cigarette.
