Lavender Chrysanthemums

Like paper on the
Walls of a long-closed bedroom-
Her flowers faded.

Less Than Perfect

Coffee
That mean lady
Took it all plus the chair.
If she weren’t so old, she’d get a
Hard pinch.

Someday When You Are Old

Someday when you are old
Sitting in wet Depends
Gazing upon the stacks
Of newspapers forming
A maze through your living room

Think of a girl who loved
You, whose face lit up when she saw
You. A girl who made you laugh.
She gave you her heart and you
Let it slide through your hands

‘Til it landed on the ground where
You danced on it like Michael Flatley.

Think of that girl you knew
Consider well your choice
As you wait, drenched in your own piss,
For this month’s Hustler to arrive.

Unbeautiful Morning

I have breakfast with her every morning.
I’ve done that for ten years.
I’m the only one that does it.
Now, I’m not complaining.
I’ll be old myself someday,
Probably sooner than I think,
But there comes a time, you know,
Where you work so hard to make somebody happy-
An old person, a baby, anyone really-
You start losing who you are.
That’s where I am now because that’s who I am.
I was over at her house this morning.
Right before I left, she said-
Do you know what she said?
She said to me, “Eggs, eggs, eggs, damn all eggs.
And the chickens can fry in hell.”
So that’s the end of it.
I’m not going back.

But it’s from a play.
It’s from “A Raisin in the Sun”.
She was quoting.

I don’t care.
I won’t go back.
Even Jesus wouldn’t take that kind of abuse.