“Oh, how would you like to go?” they ask,
“For you are getting to that age you know,
“Not that we are wishing you to go too soon,
“But we should be prepared…”
take me down to the water’s edge
like they did with the Vikings of old,
instead of a pyre, put me on a ship;
not a sailboat, mind you,
although that would be okay;
nor Never a new electronic-laden vessel
with fuel so clean and computers amok;
but
on an old ship,
a black-oil steam ship
and
let go all lines
with me aboard
where we would be
haze gray and underway.