LAST TANGO

My back hurts all the time.

And it’s getting worse.

“Bring someone to drive you home

and don’t eat anything past midnight 

the day before.” The doctor says

the place where that missing L five 

used to be has slipped, so here are some

powerful pills that will probably

kill, you, but at least you won’t suffer.

Oh and these steroid shots should,

Whoa! Hurt like that time you got

stabbed behind the pool tables

in Maggie’s bar.

Getting old is a slow motion eon

strapped to a waterboard; time

poured from what’s left in the

bottom of a grandfather clock

into my face till I can’t breathe.

My subliminal panic is cliché.

What am I going to do

besides play some soft music,

rest in an easy chair, and read

another book under the soft light

of a lamp? The one in the shrine

I have made to honor the magic

of every time I got to tango with

La Belle Dame Sans Merci?

Reviews

[Lorry]

Death will be without pain Vol, eventually. It's the living that keeps bringing it to our door.
I remember before Louis CK was cancelled, he done a great bit about going to the doc with a bad ankle and the doc saying "sure they'll kill you, but you just gotta weigh that up against how much you like your ankle not hurting!
And that to me sumdls life up. We all pay for the forgotten sins and should learn a lesson to have calmed the hell down in youth, so it might have lasted a bit longer and kept the aches and pains away a bit longer.
Which is ironic, because most of my pain was caused by accidents in youth that I struggled on with in youth until old age showed up and kicked the legs away from me.
I do get it, but did old age need to laugh in my face as it snapped my walking stick in two and how the hell did it time perfectly the termites eating through it at the exact time everyone stopped and looked my way?
No wonder no one wants old age until we get there and even then it's only slightly the lesser of two evil options.
Ach, the youth of today.... Should shut the hell up and look after their kidneys, because I might need them quite soon! 😊

[Vol]

Lorry,
I am happily ensconced in a cloud of denial, and the facts matter not. I KNOW I am 74 years old, but my mind, my soul, my spirit refuse to believe I have less than at least that amount of time left to think, to write, to visit new places, eat different food, and the list is endless as I sit here at my computer living this sedentary life... It's not complicated, my mind is a liar, and I am gullible as hell.
Vol

[Vol]

Oh, and Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci, is one of my very favorite poems and describes my adventures in love to perfection...

[Patricia Wedel]

dear Vol.. having Hungarian Blood… I weep in my Sleep. The
Light of the Silvery Moon will shine on as I become a calling Card in your 📕 Book. Softly, Pat

[Vol]

Pat,
Oh, my... The love of my life was named Pat, and this is exactly like something she would have said... sigh.
Vol

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

Sounds like a lot of dancing in your life has come back to bite your bones etc

Fave lines here
What am I going to do
besides play some soft music,
rest in an easy chair, and read
another book under the soft light


Were you a good dancer I’m sure it was wonderful I cannot dance wish I’d had lessons

I get bad leg and back pain and rump pain from one am till I get up or wake for coffee at 43o
It interrupts my sleep and a hot water bottle is my friend even on a hot night
I hate taking Panadol only Will if severe

Enjoyed your most interesting write
Take care

[Vol]

Julie,
I grew up in the sixties and dancing was a requirement. I had no sisters or girls in the neighborhood to teach me, so I did not date until i was a senior in high school. I just told everyone I was an introvert and hated crowds. But surfer girl Debbie wanted to meet at a new teen dance venue. Debbie was six feet tall, slender, and had that long, straight, sun-bleached hair... I am not sure where the courage came from, but I was quivering when I agreed. I got there early and walked into a giant floor of polished concrete with a stage in one corner and a partyball in the middle of the ceiling. It was empty except for a couple my age bobbing around the Jukebox on the opposite wall. So I shook, vibrated and sweated bullets. By the time the band had set up, Debbie arrived, the band struck up "Bread And Butter," and everybody got out there and boogied... on maybe one square foot each. Just bounce up and down and pick up a foot once in a while... no one watched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Jzl_bx3fI

[Julie McCarthy (juliespenhere)]

Love it
Oh yes I danced occas at disco but was shy too