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If The Serpent Sold Pensions
by Dan Kasten
Were I given another chance to get this right
I would begin everything exactly the same
with all the same people in the exact same places
still chasing the one-armed man with you afterwards
I know there were years in there that were good
for I have kept every card you have given me
and can decipher when you were telling me what I wanted to hear
from when you were politely telling me what I needed to know
sadly, myopia struck between the money and careers
and what justice that could have been rendered was lost
amongst plane tickets and speech mumbled or withdrawn;
the gin isnÂ’t talking yet, but it is giving me the courage
to write this down to give to you later and to share with the world, and as
you sense the regret and remorse in my voice, as you hear me write this with
clothes ripped, humbled, drunken, sullen, I also lie wondering
what I would do if the serpent sold pensions.
08/13/2007 Author's Note: Today, at 8:53AM CDT in a court room in Dallas, Texas, my divorce became final.
Pardon me, while I take today to grieve just a little...
Posted on 08/13/2007
Copyright © 2025 Dan Kasten
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 08/14/07 at 01:56 AM Poignant with a tragic twist. It is never a pleasant experience - divorce - (not been there but close to some who have been). You express the downside most dramatically. |
| Posted by Christina Bruno on 08/16/07 at 06:26 AM this is a very powerful poem. and you deserve your date to mourn. "the gin isn’t talking yet, but it is giving me the courage"...:O |
| Posted by Kathleen Wilson on 08/16/07 at 04:24 PM Sad, forthright, articulate. I love "as you hear me write this down to give to you later..."--the hearing of the writing (and in the distance). Balanced precariously between introspective regret and questioning with perpective--everyman and woman timelessly joins you here, because of your fine expression (not just your situation). |
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