THE OLD WILDCATTER
Sad as a West Texas duster
he sits on a cracked vinyl stool
Remains of youth and charm
slip through a dry-hole smile
Still drilling from habit
the wild lands of women
Still praying for gushers
Tag Archives: Aging
Y’ALL’SHEIMERS
Y’ALL’SHEIMERS
Getting old and forgetting
that the South lost the war
ONE FOR THE CAT
ONE FOR THE CAT
Buffy at fourteen
down to only two speeds
catnap and catnip
ELEVATORS
ELEVATORS
Remembering
all those seed filled erections
in every town on the prairie
back when the west was young
ACT YOUR AGE
ACT YOUR AGE
I might have heard it first at six
when mother thought that I was acting three
And again at ten when acting six or three
certainly at sixteen, acting ten, or six, or three
There is the age that I am now
known as the age of responsible men
But there are those who know it’s just an act
the me’s of three and six and ten
LANTANA MANNA
LANTANA MANNA
(for Patricia Fiske at 77)
Trees and poets
grow from the inside out
The latest lines and rings
always
the greenest and most beautiful
GROWING YOUNGER – GREECE 2000 A.D.
GREECE 2000 A.D.
Standing in front of the statues of the wise
noting how very wise they were
To be born at a ripe old age
and grow younger every year
Socrates for instance
(469-399)
certainly got it right
being born at seventy
and working backwards
to that point
of light
COUNTERPOINT
COUNTERPOINT
If you’re going to grow old anyway
Consider doing it as an artist or a poet
Waxing powers may well meet the waning
Tides coming in meeting waves going out
Coals cooling as the iron tempers
DAD AND ROY
DAD AND ROY
Dad and Roy were the best of friends
they drank and fought and played
and laughed like nobody laughed
for fifty years and more
Dad had a room in the nursing home
way down at the end of the hall
when Roy was admitted as well
a nurse wheeled him down that hall
They sat footrest to footrest a minute
then Roy said “So it’s come to this”
and they both had a hell of a laugh
Dad died in late December
Roy lasted three months more
They are buried twenty feet apart
in the prairie town where they played
I can see them there now
sitting on their shiny new stones
having a smoke and a chew
and a good pull on a forty of rye
Roy says “So it’s come to this”
and they both have a hell of a laugh