local_library Good being older now because I know

by Michael Estabrook

Published in Issue No. 248 ~ January, 2018

when to call the plumber and when I can fix it myself (most times)

we no longer need a bigger house, a faster car

there are no more corporate ladders to climb

I don’t have to worry about impressing self-serving bosses

and idiot co-workers

getting angry over political machinations is fruitless

not to get into a tizzy over unwanted marketing calls

I don’t become offended as easily as I once did

like when store clerks call me sir

I don’t have to laugh at jokes that aren’t funny

what I’m good at and not

when I’m tired I can nap

don’t always have to be right

music is the nectar of the gods

I can’t win every argument

I don’t have to pretend to like football and golf, salsa and beer

don’t have to paint the entire house over one weekend

fantasizing about sex is a dead-end road

memories become stronger and more important especially

when they involve my girl, my childhood sweetheart

I still feel guilty if I have a slice of pie or a bowl of ice cream

but it doesn’t stop me.

 

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Michael Estabrook is a recently retired baby boomer child-of-the-sixties poet freed finally after working 40 years for “The Man” and sometimes “The Woman.” No more useless meetings under florescent lights in stuffy windowless rooms. Now he’s able to devote serious time to making better poems when he’s not, of course, trying to satisfy his wife’s legendary Honey-Do List.