TAKE WHAT THEY SAY WITH AN ASPIRIN AND COME BACK IN THE MORNING
I am beginning to think
my eye isn’t tired, just droopy,
and the perennial pain
in my back isn’t incipient arthritis,
but something less chronic
like some metastases, for example.
They say that life
is more of a picnic when you’re hopeful,
but I, I guess, am one perennial cynic,
and will be,
even were my life eternal.
So take what they say
like it’s a grain of salt,
like it is that pillar that Lot’s wife turned into
when she forgot that the future
is what is most important; and that,
while whatever else they assert is an actual statistic,
unless you’re a million people,
don’t count on its being accurate.
And even if you get invited to that picnic
make sure those pretty delicacies are not tainted.