Awful age

As one gets older

they learn to explain more

to the youth

and to tire

of the explanation

and youth

who ask

what it is like to be awful with age

that only leaves more and less

at the same time

*

I’ve said some awful things

like admitting that

I’ve said some awful things

and not admitting

the worst of what I didn’t say

which was this once too

but now that it exists,

I can say

things don’t look so awful

*

Where are the poets

who can write the world

who can bend

a truth that will mend

and renew

and show that while knowledge is power

it is how you know you know

that makes you powerful,

besides for capsized in their books

and in their lines like soldiers following orders

and in their poems like this

that help no one

not even them,

though they’ll march forward,

wondering where they are going