i feel ancient, like time has taken me
and shaken me like a bad child, or
a watch that needs to be restarted
and before we restart it all must
come out, all the youthful gore
and the childhood pain, all of it
God will send the being to extract
it, a marine, in act three of life
a simple jest turned acrid, turned
like that screw we all know and
fear, like a comedy gone wrong
and all end up deader than what
was known: these days i feel ancient
like the wind can do no more to
shape me and the tides must take me
