Excerpt from Larry Rogers' LIVE FREE OR CROAK

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Category: Excerpts from Our Books
Published: Friday, 15 September 2017 17:03
Written by Super User
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For Mrs Rogers

                          At 65, I'm still bringing apples

                          with bites taken out of them

                          to a kindergarten teacher, the one

                          I married 33 years ago; and she

                          is still having to remind me

                          not to resent authority so much

                          and not to play so rough with others.

 

Once

                                                we imbibed

                                                a little concoction

                                                rumored to be

                                                something the Vietnamese

                                                substituted for

                                                embalming fluid

                                                part alcohol

                                                and part who-knows-what.

 

                                               Just enough alcohol

                                               to lift our spirits

                                               and/or numb

                                               our hearts and minds,

                                               and not quite enough

                                               who-knows-what

                                               to kill us.