Conversion Poem by Bill Grace

It occurred to me while loading pills
How much life had changed from days of youth
When loading would have meant a magazine
With which to harry crow or fox.

One spring break was memorable
Twenty three wood chucks were taken with varying forms of guile
I can not even imagine such carnage being recreation now
For one who delights in close proximity of deer.

Too much of anger, fear and youth has passed
With a vision of place upon a different planet
Than when hope was standing in the center of the whirl.
The innocence too is gone,
When the word 'survival' was something only for artic explorers
And others too fool hardy to imagine.