Old Men
What old men are like
I am unable to say although I am one.
They could be like me.
But I cannot know for certain
Whether in general they are content,
Frightened, accepting, or involved
Part of the time. That is how
I see myself just now—all those components—
But in an hour everything could
Be upturned and I become never the same.
So, if anybody knows
What old men are like,
Do ask them to tell me.
Jonathan Bracker is the author of eight poetry collections, the latest of which, from Seven Kitchens Press, is Attending Junior High. His Concerning Poetry: Poems About Poetry was published last year by Upper Hand Press. He is the editor of Bright Cages: The Selected Poems of Christopher Morley (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), co-author with Mark Wallach of Christopher Morley (Twayne Press, 1976), and editor of A Little Patch of Shepherd’s-Thyme: Prose Passages of Thomas Hardy Arranged As Verse, (Moving Finger Press, 2013). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Northwest, Southern Poetry Review, and other periodicals.