my friend and classmate Bernard
specializes in aging poems using
the ageless format pyramidal insight
to bind his years together
extend their expiration dates
he makes growing old less accumulating
and heavy more stripped away and
transparent scissoring away the fat in
his history to make montages
that are more delectable to swallow
quite amazing since I imagine myself
25 years later failed back surgery
two hip replacements and a prolific
case of the gout not wanting to write
about sunny mornings birds or rainbows
instead guiding my pen to stab
all my bad luck in the back
when I’m not whining heavy-handed
throughout those long cold
winter nights