i've seen it ruin many a man

So now what?

Now that the press-on tattoos have all faded away

and those twelve proofs-of-purchases have been mailed off to Battle Creek, Michigan

and we're no longer hung over from that junior-high wine

and we've phoned in our lives

and we aren't sleeping

and we look like we're forty

and we're rubbing our temples

and others are commenting on our restless souls

and we no longer have moxie and naivete

and are we obsessed with our selfish nature and isolation?

What now?

Reviews

[Vol]

Philip,
Damn fine poem. Sir! Especially the voice, few there are with one as good.
So, you've been following me around, listening to my curmudgeonly complaints... I think my moxie is hiding out in The Keys with my mind... one of these days, I'm gonna follow. If I don't die, first. And if I get anything from box tops again, this time I hope it really does fly. Wat keeps me going is the guy I remember being even twenty years ago motorbiking to the Grand Canyon. I can remember him thinking about me up here where I am now, wondering if I'd make it. And there ain't much of him I don't miss. Again, sir, DAMN fine poem, indeed.
Vol

[Philip Gaber]

Thank you, Vol. That means a lot, brah. Appreciate it.

[Philip Gaber]

Hemmingway loved the keys. Gotta get down there some day. Sniff his presence and his presents.

[Vol]

I know, I was gonna pee in the urinal he put in the yard, but, even in Key West, I'd have probably been arrested.

[Philip Gaber]

😂 Yeah, city ordinances!