Love me when I am old
No
need to love me when I am young,
because
I can only love myself then.
No
need to kiss me under the apple bough,
as
any pair of fair arms would me arouse.
But
love me, love me when I am old,
when
the extremities of me grow cold,
when
neither food nor drink will do.
For
all the years that we drift through,
pretending
we each other didn’t know,
now love me, love me as we
stand in snow
Unnamed
Static
as Buddha
inert
as a rock
I
move you not,
But
snow melts
and
rains fall
on
mountain top,
Even
as I breathe
vapors
of December –
that
after taste
of
my days, I hold
you
in memory
as
a photo in wallet.
Oh
come run with me
for
a day more
in
the valley
And
linger there
as
the ice melts
and
snow dissipates.
How like a clearing in the woods
On
the 10th day of the 19th year we finally stumble
out
into a clearing
The
remaining men shrieked like children
as
our captain in full beard
Supplicates
to the blue sky
We
had killed our imagination for otherwise
the
numerous cries of the jungle
haunt
the years we are forgotten
As
men on expedition
And
finally we have each our own place
even
though as our neighbors
Have
changed to the right of us
to
the left of us
And
the truth now is to put our machetes
down,
disrobe, and cleanse
ourselves
In
the creek
with
the dense foliage of the jungle
behind
us
amid
the fearsome flights of Gothic
bats
and growling bears
But
now our wise captain leads us
into
this clearing
Where
the light is right for a van Gogh
the
price is right for a Picasso
And
on this 10th day of the 19th year
we
cry, but we no longer know
why
we are here
We
will go back into it for another 19 years.
Love your poem, "Love me when I am old"
ReplyDeleteYes, I am old. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteFor those of you Koon poetry followers, he will have two poems in an upcoming raptor anthology, called Prey Tell. More on this soon. The anthology is a fundraiser for the Owl Moon Raptor Center in Boyd, MD.
ReplyDelete