“If only I could…” “You’re not old enough.”
“But all I really want…” “You’ll have to wait.”
More singular than Beauty’s rose and tough
as diamonds to obtain, I dedicate
intelligence to choosing strategy
and tactics so my body will behave.
That’s all I’m asking presently of me:
the only thing I wish nobody gave.

Too many years to decades grown and passed
have witnessed me recording all the rules
I fabricated to defy. At last
there’s light to recognize the dance of fools
who take a backward tumble in the hush
behind the vacuum of the toilet’s flush.