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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book... “Farewell to Seafaring” Down in the Dirt, v153 (the January 2018 Issue) You can also order this 6"x9" issue as a paperback book:

Order this writing in the issue book At Midnight the Down in the Dirt Jan.-Apr. 2018 collection book		get the 418 page Jan.-Apr. 2018 Down in the Dirt issue anthology 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Mows the grass at 83

Clay Carpenter

Mows the grass at 83, he’s
out smoothing new cement on the walk,
just bought himself a new car
and ladders and roofs
don’t scare him

smokes half a pack a day,
down from a pack before the
first granddaughter was born,
and a pack and a half
in the infantry in 1943

lunches on convenience store burritos
eats fried chicken for dinner
and there are always pan dulce
in the glass cake dish on the table

leaves the pills to his wife,
who had a triple bypass five years ago
and leaves the doctors to his wife too,
because he doesn’t trust them
or need them

It’s as if the old man
expects to live to be 100,
as if people did it all the time

as if expectation
were medicine
and steps were currency,
each one he takes buying two more

and then comes the heart attack
they describe as massive,
he is surprised he had it
and the doctors are surprised he survived it
although the family isn’t

docs tell him he’ll need a quadruple bypass,
especially risky at his age,
and he survives it, too,
and no one’s very surprised

and they’ll put him on a regimen
of diet and pills
and they’ll forbid
strenuous activity

but no one will be surprised
if he leaves the diet and pills to his wife
and mows the grass.

originally published in Falling Star Magazine

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