Toothless In Tepoztlan

A bull that cannot charge

a cobra with no venom

a carnivore with no hunger.

Have I lost the will to live?

I think I’ve lost the will

not to die.

Let’s face it, like all the

toothless lions, supported

on each side by lionesses.

They know. Why don’t we?

Send old folks to processing

homes so someone doesn’t

have to see? That may not

be bad…more productive life

without the burden of knowing,

seeing one’s own fate.

I think sending me out onto the

ice, when I can’t chew the blubber

is really the best way.

Don’t put me in a home.

Let’s have a party in the

middle of winter. I’ll go out

then, into the cold with a

bottle of the best. That’s the

way a poet or an Eskimo

should go.