are you reminded that you will die soon
is it too much to bear
that someone young doesn’t need
living irrelevance

never cracking a spine
and watching deep voiced narrators
does not qualify
opinion or respect

those gathered roses
died
long ago, when muscles could flex
and confidence appeared across any vision

to you now the defense
scrawled on arms
buried in inadequacies, age
not wisdom is clear

t-r-a-d-i-t-i-o-n
graspable only through anger
misunderstood
beneath the nuclear desk

masculine cock
clear as mythos
enlivens nostalgia
for a boy’s reader birthright

the century turns
in the distance
as you become
dust