An Old Man Asleep
       

            Volcanoes spit out clouds of teachers.
The sea gives up children, his and maybe his,
getting sick on sundaes and root beer.
Beach roads are crowded with old friends.

            One by one they tell him he won't die.
No disease will take him, no accident will befall him.
Nothing will end with him,
just one beginning after another

            and all that time to think about all that time
and all those times needing to be made right,
life to reassess and loves to leave
exactly as they were.

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Copyright © 2022 John Surowiecki All rights reserved
from The Louisville Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission