Good Days

Jack McCarthy, Stand-Up Poet, 1939–2013

It had been one of those good days with friends

and now we were sitting around the bonfire

telling stories—a circle of light within the dark.

The wind through the trees above us sounded

like faraway conversations, perhaps the talk

of friends around bonfires in the past. Some

were drinking, some not. Some leaned back

on their elbows, some sat cross-legged.

You know how it is: your face grows hot,

your back turns cold. As time passed, one

by one, men and women got to their feet and

walked into the night. Yes, that’s how it was.