Michael Estabrook
BEFORE GRANDPA DIED

he was so tired hunched forward
wrinkled.
I'm beginning to understand why he was this
way because of having children because of
relatives & friends mortgages taxes heating
bills marriage wars bad food pesticides x-rays
debts alcohol cigarettes illnesses suicide broken
bones lawyers political rhetoric poverty
stupidity street gangs sit-coms car accidents
arrogant stupid baseball players making a
million dollars a year handguns heroin plastic
drift nets gay-bashing pens banks and credit
card companies trying to fuck you out of your
money fat-faced moronic plumbers ants
cockroaches misogynists earthquakes hornets
ethnic cleansing rats the post office autism lust
rudeness money-grubbing doctors greed
religious fanatics murder rape child abuse
miscarriages abortions the death penalty
cowards who beat their wives racism
christianity pollution broken promises
insincerity rabies bad breath cheap wine tumors
diarrhea nausea pharmaceutical companies
AIDS snow storms Arabs & Jews the Irish &
the English blacks & whites the Japs & the
Chinese nuclear bombs space travel sex & blah
blah-blah blah blah.
oh yes it's easy to understand why Grandpa
was so tired so damned tired before he died.

THE OLDER I GET

the more it seems I’m
becoming my father, shaving
with a Remington Electric Razor,
using Old Spice, feeling
patriotic, drinking ice cold glasses
of milk, listening
to old Western tunes from the 40s
by the Sons of the Pioneers.
At least I’m not
as bad yet as my wife
who’s becoming her mother,
talking to herself all
the damn time and dribbling food
down the front of her blouse.

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