REDEMPTION
MY ROCK & ROLL REDEMPTION
One day from 60 +then I stop counting permanently
Our family Rabbi said at the Atkins funerals I’ve
attended Every year past 70 is an extra 70 sounded
ancient now it doesn’t It already has a tentacle around
a mottled ankle
Maybe age is just a number? I used to think espousers of
this philosophy shallow But now that my number is up there
I care less +soon I will care not at all Ditto petty bullshit
Do not wax poetic re: your cousin’s hernia surgery My eyes in
permaglaze from 6 decades of nodding politely
These days I’m just as likely to get my shotgun out +send you
packing light a fire under your greasy bonhomie Approach me
carefully Target practice yesterday Shotgunned 1st beer Sunday
Husband+brothers: You don’t have to tilt your head all the way
back Just tilt the beer! Now they will feel buckshot nibbling at
sagging butts +wish they’d never messed with pretty little me
Do I sound angry?
It’s just that when you read say Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography
no matter how bad things get you know who he will grow up to be
In my story is there no rock & roll redemption in sight? Show a little
faith there’s magic in the night I ain’t a beauty but hey I’m alright!
Go quietly railing is for pussies +face it your story will never end with
you growing up to be Bruce Springsteen But these poems full of darkness
at the edges +flights of baroque are the antidote to believing too much in
anything So jilt all saviours +commit the 1st rule of immortality to memory:
This flesh is highly overrated OMG! Maybe I did grow up to be Bruce Springsteen
__
You can hide ‘neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain for a saviour to rise
from these streets. Thunder Road 1975 The Boss
Spring 2017 onedayto60
