RETIRE

Now I am afraid
All alone
I stay at home
The virus ended my job

I use to drive to work everyday
Now my company offers me severance pay
My boss told me, “Do not come back!”
Please just stay away

His look told me he thinks I am too old
He fears I am suffering from senior mold
You really should retire
Now I can get a young man to hire

So I sit in my drywall box
Fearing the covid pox
At least I will get Fifteen Hundred from Social Security
I just have to get use to poverty

I should go take a walk
I have plenty of people to talk to
They are always there in my head
The problem is they are all dead

I wish I had an ex wife
To blame for the failure of my life
I wish I had children who hated me
That prayed for my death
I always wanted a daughter to bury me beneath
The Manchineel Tree

To pass the time I will continue to pretend I am a great poet
Continuing to write words that move my fellow man
That was my plan
But I now know the poems I write that make sense to me
Are only read by my apartment fleas

One day the fleas will be joined by the flies
Cats scratching outside my apartment door
The landlady won’t be able to ignore
I can hear her shout, “What the Hell Is that smell!”

My death my demise
Will be my final prize
Slumped in my chair
Watching my favorite car repair show
Good bye melrosejoe

But wait I have one last chance
To join the entertainment dance
The Film commission is reading my book
Thirty years it took

They will evaluate and tell me what they think
I pray they tell me my words stink
They may send me to a shrink
Or announce to the press
I am proof of the missing link

I fear success at my advanced age
I am comfortable with rejection
It provides mental protection

So now I know
I am suffering from
Retirement woes