James Thomas Hazard
Zack and I were friends till
the day
I skipped town on a Greyhound
Bus,
West for oil instead of hay
Off to Galveston Bay or bust!
He studied finance and earned
a degree
Then built a store in a
hundred cities,
Everything shipped to homes,
tax free,
A billionaire twice before
turning fifty!
Amassing debt, brats and wives,
I did my last stint on a rig
for crude
Then bought a bike for the
pleasure of rides
Where the oldest giants on
earth have stood
Drought has sweetened the air
with smoke
And the ancient Bristlecone
Pines are dying,
Foliage brown and branches
broken.
When Rome was built those
trees were thriving
In class I’d hear him say, “Rusnak”
(Zack always used my proper
name)
“Both of us have a special
knack
For getting our way, though
we’re not the same
“You act like everyone’s on
your team.
I’d rather know what people
want.
That can be useful, if you
know what I mean-
The look in their eyes when
they’re looking at junk.”
Now he’s launching ships into
space
As far as my drills into the
North Sea
Maybe this was some kind of
race
Or a test of wills in the
face of adversity
I fed engines the power they
needed,
He sold the people their
heart’s desire.
I guess you can say that we
both succeeded
And like Prometheus, gave the
world fire