Thursday, July 17, 2008

Stricken and Strangled

Stink me, stank me,
String me up and spank me,
Be a lady tonight, just once,
And not so nice,
Just take me in your hands if you want
And don't crucify me
When I stick my tongue in your secret place!

Stick me, stack me,
Don't turn me loose!
I have a lot to say these days,
But it doesn't go very far.
My house is in tatters,
My leg movements fettered,
My freedom of movement is toast
Like everything else I like the most.

I'm waiting, I'm flailing, I'm failing--
How many more wasted hours will there be
Wrested from all these fake and earnest complaints,
These aching bones and hours and flesh?
We are all inflamed with it,
Infuriated by, arrested by, flung far by
The lapses, lunges, leaps
Of everything that can be alarmed--
Just like this damned old age that won't
Leave or arrive, won't fold,
Whether we dare speak it or claim it
Or milk it or cleanse it or what!
Those who may tell it
Are not exactly congratulating us for it.
It's not so bad to be old by yourself,
You can figure out a way around almost anything
Or else just cuss profanely and
Decide it doesn't bother you any more
Like it did for fifty years!
Not much sense in that!
But being old among the young
Who are still walking past and going fast
With no concept of what it seems like to others
When young people dash in and out of a crowded walkway!
You bastards under forty don' make much sense, either,
With all that adolescent snot still hanging from your nose,
So, no, I DON'T trust you to be as accurate
As an Olympic athlete going for the gold.
I expect you to be clumsy as a seal
While you don't care how I feel
And you pretend there's no one else
On the planet but you,
At least no one of any consequence.
Your Mamma should slap your teeth out
Or should've just choked you in your crib,
But she didn't and
She's not around to be ashamed,
And God might do it in her absence,
But He hasn't been seen
Or heard from in these parts for years.

1 comment:

  1. This one is actually not bad, but it has attracted about as much attention as a dog turd on the sidewalk.

    ReplyDelete

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here! (At least put on your socks and pants.)