Wrote itself after the first line

Back on July 4th, a college friend died suddenly. Today would have been his 52nd birthday.

First birthday, gone

This is for the kid who is going to work their way through college playing bottles behind the bar with spoons.
This is for the kid who is going to do more over nights celebrating that it’s Thursday and that we are all alive instead of chemistry 101
This is for the artists, the music lovers, barroom poets, drinkers of cheap drinks. The chewers of bubble gum instead of tobacco.
This is for the 3AM conversations on fire landings, pot luck dinners fueled by bottles of Mateus wine and canned beer.
This is for the bedroom music studios and midnight recording sessions that got played on the college radio station.
This is for the ones who pulled the overnight shift at the convenience store, the ones who pulled the drunks out of gutters at 4AM, the ones who let us off for pissing in an alley.
This is for every professor with a loose attendance policy, for the dining hall breakfast worker who gave out extra bacon.

For every father who loves his children

For everyone we love, who left us too soon.


A scholarship for Fredonia High School seniors in Doug's name has been established, you can find out how to contribute here.