An aged man is but a paltry thing
W.B. Yeats
Sailing to Byzantium
Yes, I know. Its all been said. So sue me.
Its just that I happened to glance at a mirror
in one of those garish department stores
and saw someone who looked like me,
only a lot grayer and fatter, and I thought
There, but for the grace of my delusions, go I,
whereupon that trope about the mechanical bird
on the golden bough finally became meaningful.
By now, you young in one another's arms
are rolling your eyes, yawning and thinking
Jesus, another geezer in a mid-life crisis
and it is indeed a rather tired old tale,
but panic doesnt disdain to cry out
simply because the people on shore
are frolicking blissfully out of ear shot
or because it has already "been done."
