MUSE

The fifth day I woke to find my muse
Whom I hadn't seen for many years
Rifling through my pack. "In hard times,"
She said "We all do as we must."
Time had been unkind to her
Making her younger now than I
But fever-thin with eyes that shone.
I gave her tobacco and the clean socks
I'd thought to wear when I was buried.
She did her best for me, inspiring
Poems in languages I no longer knew.