Saturday, October 6, 2012

And out of long silence -- suddenly a poem


Second Childhood

I never expected at my age
 to be rolling  around on the floor like this
without the need to call EMS

(If the people who once called me boss
could see only see me now.)

Squeals that out-wail sirens,
small bodies that fly at me
with pillows from the couch
(where I'd prefer to be)
their ecstasy in their favorite toy
so animated, large,
so soft and bald

I remind myself from earlier days in another ring
to protect myself at all times.
I  wonder why I am now the one
in fetal position,

and when they'll start to enjoy, instead, my mind,
assuming it ever will function again.