19 Me? I’ve led a gluttonous life

19

Me? I’ve led a gluttonous life

Me? I’ve led a gluttonous life filled with

Giant footsteps and eating, speed, like Ajax,

Stuffing, like the Turkey on the counter,

And here I am, ready, readied, couth-practiced:

Framed wide at the shoulders and aged elbows,

And stretched plumage at the chest and ribs

Dirt beard up my cheeks and curled dilemmas

Climbing towards my ear lobes, festered with loose

Indiscrete hairs pulled out violently –

A Hemingway-ape taking giant steps

Into the thinning blubber of the world

At its worst. I would almost be Cato,

And tear my guts.

- Anatol Cordua (c) 2017