Ed Ahern

Cinq Poesies

 

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Completed Pass

 

I renounced pro football.

My one-sided affection for

fifty-three sweaty strangers

meant lost half-weekends

and addiction to talking heads.

 

Chasing a testosterone spoor

clotted me into a yelling mob

of men seeking ersatz glory.

Better to play the game, any game,

than howl from a bleacher.

 

I threw them off the flat screen,

made amends to the family,

ignored their baited mention,

saved money on garish jerseys

and found life after fandom.

 

Don’t look back

 

I don’t look back

at what I can no longer do-

the marathons completed, 

the snake-strike rejoinders,

the sleep donated to work, 

the effort wasted on status.

 

I have perhaps another decade

grasping at less and nearer,

moving more slowly after

residual desire and reduced need,

discerning through reading glasses

an image of shriveled ego

 

Corona Malaise

 

Staring at myself

In enforced isolation

I’m not who I want.

 

Are we saved yet?

 

Pummeling a skin tabor face

   Violating sinners as they atone

      Tithing by coercion and promise

         Picking at shames so they can fester

            Shrilling curses from ordained throats

               Breaking spirits in rhythm with chants

                   What redemptive bliss in saving others

 

The Minimalist*

 

I know a minimal man

who spurns my smart devices

and lives without television,

ignorant of electronic ephemera

deflating from urgent to forgotten

within a week.

I wonder, between bombardments

if he isn’t the one better able

to appreciate his context.

Is it too late for me?

 

*For Tom

 

Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had over three hundred stories and poems published so far, and six books. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of nine review editors.

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