Bet

I bet you have kissed

tulips before

and sucked

the soft middle out

of fowl eggs that never found their way

to the hut behind your hot heart

I bet you have closed moist

eyes and seen the world on

a string spinning in

a dancehall of politicians pundits and preachers

So why are your ears clogged

with wicked wind and wise water

Why wonder whether your delight is guaranteed

by the infinite promises that are conceived by

a manufacturing plant in the deep toy strewn sky where

all is stamped with the trademark DDD

Deceive Distress Destroy

Why hide in the mud of yesterday’s miseries and glees

Why sit in the puddles of fears that splatter tomorrow’s tracks

Bring on the sun storm

bite into the present flesh

I bet you can smile

at nothing

even when there is something

to laugh about.

Old

I actually look forward to it.

I look forward to being a great old man.

Accomplished, happy, content, kind, loving,

as physically fit as the best of them,

as sexually able as ever

better in and out of bed than ever

with a bigger tongue for tasting life’s sweet whatevers.

I look forward to having more knowledge than I could use

Having more leisure time, space and peace that I could abuse

I look forward to holding in my heart so many wonderful memories

that the few awful ones would have no room to surface.

I look forward to being proud of my ability to walk barefoot and naked

without shame, as I do now.

I look forward to being freer and more broadminded

than I could possibly be as a younger man.

I look forward to being a little rough

To having a tougher skin and a gaping laugh.

I look forward to the time when my future is short and sure

and every second is special.

As an old man

I’ll be able to confidently look the world in its eyes and

tell it to #@*&* off,

cause I would owe no one an explanation,

I would have done it all,

and I would be ready to die.