Adieu, adieu, my failed decade.
Adieu and thanks for lessons all.
You cut my crutches with your blade,
But chiseled legs for standing tall.

You found an angry, pampered boy
And tried to make a tempered man.
You tried your every trick and ploy,
And still I threw you off your plan.

But worry not, you managed well.
You did inject maturity.
I know at times it’s hard to tell,
But now I have some clarity.

You taught me where to put my time,
And who to give my faith and trust,
And how to push beyond my prime,
And when to parry, when to thrust.

You drilled in me a discipline
To do the things I love to do,
To draw my art from deep within,
To learn again a skill or two.

Again I thank you for the years
Of wanderings through luck and loss,
For now I see my smiles and tears
As heads and tails of equal toss.