The Pill (poem)

I want a law that gives a pill
on request to anyone over 70
and therefore to me so that
when it's time I don't have
to be messy about it,
I don't have to sneak around
like a goddamn jewel thief,
a criminal, with mental instability,
but instead be who I am, a man
celebrating a blessed life by
having the good sense, the good
taste, to leave the field of play
before he's an embarrassment
to himself.

I want a law that lets
me emulate Rocky Marciano
rather than end up like Joe Louis.

I know this is an impossible request
but I make it anyway and I want you
to remember it as you face
and have to clean up
the gory stench of what was
once my life.

What I wanted was a pill.
What I wanted was a pill.

--Charles Deemer