I haven't given up on the BARK project. Stay tuned...

The Gathering of Old Men

At any gathering of old men especially at the coffee shop
perhaps it’s the dark roast aroma that does it
the guard comes down after the second cup sipped slowly
and we begin to ponder and wonder out loud
ignoring all advice from Buddha and Jesus and Aristotle
about living in the present I pontificate again
citing Aristotle’s postulations about phronesis in learning
and Ken says we should read John A. Sanford
not the novelist but the Jungian shadow Side of Reality
priest suggesting we should check shadows
to see if ours are still there in old age which we all deny
but Jim insists or at least advises that music
is the answer George Gershwin had something to sing
about whatever it was Ben adds in Spanish
before Bill takes us this time to John Jack Stanford
and then David who isn’t as old as we are
says he’s not getting as much sleep as he used to get
because he has to get up at night to pee
and everybody says like the chorus in a Greek tragedy
you ain’t seen nothing yet just wait and see
pretty soon you’ll discover that the most important thing
about getting satisfactorily through the day
is always knowing where you are relative to bathrooms.