Aurora Staples Inn

AURORA STAPLES INN, STILLWATER, MINNESOTA

Before there were Starbucks and cell phones
in a time before rush hour,
you sat in this very chair.

Would you mind that I, so very modern,
made love to my wife in the same walnut bed
where you recovered from Gettysburg?

When lumber barons not neo-cons
ruled this great land
were men really that different?

"I think not,"
I hear you whisper through
the hundred year old wardrobe.

We wanted the same for our children
and prayed in the same
manner as you.

In the brisk air of winter we have
both been moved by the still waters
of the St. Croix; just the same.

--Shenandoah Lynd

(written and posted in Minnesota)