JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

Have you noticed

how some eat peas first

then pie crust

carefully mopping remains

until the pink glistening beef

lies royally and tempting

center stage upon its plate

waiting to be savored

bite by luscious bite

 

they’re saving the best for last

 

But there are those

who wildly devour their childhood

with adolescent appetites

of sniff and swallow

month long relationships

consumed then discarded

for other assignations and adventures

 

They trek to Himalayan glaciers

try on and abandon religions

like last year’s fashions

all their life’s a whirl

until they awake one morning

find they’re fifty and alone

 

Still there’s hope as yesterday I heard

of Mr. B who after two marriages

decades of toil in a dingy office

turning papers churning columns of figures

marooned after his last divorce

finally meets his childhood sweetheart

who’d been widowed

moves in with her

and now tells bedtime stories

to her grandchildren

and as she now supports him

from the proceeds of her late husband’s insurance

he no longer needs to worry financially

spends his spare time writing poetry

and competing in fun runs because

he explains life’s like that for him

 

the best moments often come last