(for Sean Maher)
It would have been so easy to sit back and let things be,
To ignore your sister’s covert cry, and not try to set her free.
But you chose to give up all you had for the sake of who you are;
Now you’re set on River’s twisted course as you wend from star to star.
You were a man of substance, then; you had prestige and wealth;
Now you find yourself an outlaw, nursing brigands back to health.
You’ve learned to laugh at deadly threats; you’ve been beaten, stabbed, and shot,
And you’ve learned that this insanity is just an outlaw’s lot.
Sometimes you think of might-have-beens, and try to fix the blame,
But given the same choice again, you know you’d act the same.
And River has a family now, as she did not before,
Friends who’d kill or die for her, and it’s hard to ask for more.
It would have been so easy to sit back and close your eyes,
To listen to your parents, and believe the system’s lies,
But you gave up everything and set out for a distant star,
Stepped over the volcano’s edge, and found out who you are.
Paul Haynie
1/23/2003