Birthday Vision
The last utterance of immortality,
an old poet's tongueless scream.
The senile words fall unheeded
and heads nod, remember what he was?
Trapped in vision corridor
my mind swirls Chinese new years.
Bang go the firecrackers
in the year of the Dragon.
Forgetfulness a movie, opiate a woman,
I bent and creaking with a knobby cane.
The darkened walls laugh hooks to hold
my body,
but I awaken, and am only twenty-six.