We paint ourselves into corners, shady, feverish, asphyxiating corners, where we pace and gasp for breath. A single bulb dangles between us. A crumpled map and a pair of glasses drown in a puddle of light on the table. A chair askew between light and shadows, another tipped over backward where it fell, clatter still lingering, temper's testament. (Source: "Chiaroscuro", 40x41: Midlife Crisis ...
Midlife Poems
Memento Mori by Billy Collins
It's time I return to the topic of memento mori, no? Billy Collins has [at least] twice taken up the "Memento Mori" title/topic. "There is no need for me to keep a skull on my desk, to stand with one foot up on the ruins of Rome, or wear a locket with the sliver of a saint’s bone. It is enough to realize that every common object in this sunny little room will outlive me– the carpet, ...
Calypso
When thirty nine sashayed in with her bodacious tatas and voluptuous curves I panicked. My dormant radar quivered to life. “Beware: Temptation.” flashed the neon pulse. And I knew. Heed not Calypso's hypnotic hips and waspy midriff, those painted lips, that coquettish paisley smile, her saccharine song. I knew it was a trap. (Source: "Calypso", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) A ...
Desiderata
Desiderata Early mornings Velvet winter Sunny slopes Playful bride Ample walkabout Precocious spring Fertile flow Sumptuous sunrise Eternal cyclabouts Taffy byways Kinful summer Robust gardens Languid waters Vibrant autumn Scudding seas Concluded stories (Source: "Desiderata", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) ...
Deadbeat
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. And I the father, for this is no bastard child conceived in passing passion, born in shame, fostered abroad and shunned as a faceless stranger. I’ll claim the fruit of my own seed, nurture and protect it, essay to understand it, forgive it, liberate it and finally – I hope – celebrate it. I've been wrestling with this midlife ode/anti-ode for a ...
The Beard
Donegal beard contest? I can scarcely resist, coming so soon after Spielberg’s Lincoln. And then I discover a Donegal beard is also known as a “chin curtain”, a name, a notion too inexplicably tempting. I Google “beard plugs” and discover that it’s possible to surgically transplant hair from the head or the chest. There are even beard tattoos, compensatory trompe l'oeil for the stubble ...