I wanted to hit post # 50
by the early springtime
date of April 30. Wouldn’t
that be nifty?
But this attempt is too corny
to qualify as any quality
post, so I will be really ornery
and state that a really good #50
will have to wait, maybe,
till the merry month of May;
and so may
it be; and so I’ll let it be;
let it be,
omm,
except it now is; so let it be,
omm.

Referencing previous laureates
and their ambitious agendas,
the poet said they were young
and vibrant and that he was
old and vibrant, so instead of
an ambitious program, he
would just sit and vibrate.

The listener, who noticed
things going wrong bodily
since turning seventy, thought
the laureate’s words were
not only really funny but,
because the poet obviously
enjoyed language, great.

So, composing his latest
while sitting at the computer,
the listener noticed his
fingers trembling, but just
smiled and said to himself,
see, all poets old and great
vibrate.

And then, he added this update.
“See, dear, I must be a poet;
I vibrate.

The expensive charm bracelet
is all the rage according to
the T.V. ads, which simply
confirms he said with a sigh
that we haven’t changed since
junior high.

He said he had been reading some
good articles in the latest AARP
magazine on healthy eating as he
reached for a bag in the cupboard
and emptied a large portion into a
bowl. She said, “That’s not exactly
a healthy snack.” He said, “It has
cheese in it and a vegetable.”
“That’s Korn with a K,” she said
looking at the front of the bag.
The Chocolate Lab followed behind
him as he headed to his chair.
Apparently, the dog didn’t care
how the word was spelled.

the poet quoted william james on marriage:
“overlooking, overlooking.” the theologian

wrote docta ignorantia: “learned ignorance.”
the man said, while looking across the table,

“i have to get serious about those things.”
the woman smiled the smile of docta ignorantia

while “overlooking, overlooking” what she was
looking at across the table.

The good rabbi stated, “If it
were going really, really well
for you, look out.” Actually,
I think that is a variation on
Murphy’s Law, which says
something like “If anything
can go wrong, it will,” but this
probably just went wrong in
the two quotes because I have
no idea if either is accurate,
even if the sentiment is at
least somewhat accurate,
which I think it is and with
that I’m going to stop now.

The news was ubiquitous —
rioting, looting, burning,
once more, once more, once more,
the Power sat home, perhaps
watched, perhaps not,
days would pass, news would
move on, promises, promises,
once more, once more, once more,
the Power switched to
Market Watch.

The man remembers overhearing a guy
at the condo pool discuss the previous
evening’s happy hour at a pretty swank
steak house. The man only saw the guy
drink diet pop. The guy was saying that
he orders lots of appetizers because he
feels bad only ordering diet pop instead
of booze. Then the man heard the guy
say that he doesn’t drink anymore be-
cause it wasn’t a pretty sight when he
did. The man also remembers asking an
acquaintance at Tuesday $5 hamburger
and chips night at an American Legion
Post in a little town near where the man
and his wife like to camp, why the fellow
wasn’t having a drink. He said he quit a
couple of years after returning from Viet
Nam. Then the vet quickly added that
when he drank, it wasn’t a pretty sight.
The man thought about those two things
and some others that made him wince as
he sipped his dirty martini at a Platinum
LED hotel during another happy hour.

He thought about his life by the decade:
Went where told.
Slapped upside the head.
Started out.
Wondered.
Slapped upside the head, again.
Hit stride.
Slowed down.

Watching a program on child abuse,
the man shuddered and relived the
moment he picked up his baby boy
out of the crib. The baby wouldn’t
stop crying and the man shook his
infant son but caught himself and
put the screaming baby back down.
That baby went on to be an All-Amer-
ican swimmer, scholar and Ironman
Tri-Athlete. The man shuddered at
the thought of what might have been
but, by grace, wasn’t and never
would be.