LEGACY - Poem

 

LEGACY

 

(copyright 2011, by Dave Kiffer)

 

At my age

My father had

Five years left.

Five years

Of cheap beer

And plentiful fish.

But five years

Nonetheless.

 

That thought

Occurs to me

as I stand in

the bathroom

at three am

Contemplating

Enlarged organs

and weak stream.

 

That last night

My father slipped

Out of his bunk

Padded across

The fo'c'sle floor

And thumped

Into the dark

Pilot house.

 

He peed loudly

Into a silver

Galvinized pail.

It was only

After the police

Had finished up

That I thought

To empty it.

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