The ninth okay poem.

Time is almost up for me

Not in the same way it is

for all of us

There is simply not

enough energy left

after whimpering at the end

of a Cranberries album

For me to consider another

thirty four years

But I could bargain

Perhaps for eight

with the demons

that encircle me

Who are kind

at least

in their torment

Such that they let

at least some beauty

shine through

In the glimmer of a Pacific sunset

or the dulcet tone

of a lone piano echoing Satie