For my friend.....

A Late Morning Shave

The stakes get higher as you get older:

The feeling of coarseness like tree trunks

The stains that can’t be removed, lists

of things that tumble upon each other.

They don’t tell you these things in school:

How to watch fathers die, how to shave

their faces and look into their eyes.

They don’t teach you about the end.

They worry about the beginnings, the eve

of life. Seeds and incoming drops of rain

never floods and falling trees, never

oceans overwhelming your eyes and feet