Ashes

As I walked down the hill like I did

Since I was a twenty-something kid

I thought, oh my God, there's something

Loose and shaking beneath my skin

Oh my God, these are my elbows, these are my wrists

This is my jaw, and these are my ribs

Underneath my skin, yes, there is a skeleton

I didn't think about this when I was twenty, or thirty, or forty

All I thought about then was spreading

My seed around via my rockstar glory

And at thirty, I thought for sure there was an eternity

Of magical days and nights on this planet laying before me

I didn't think I'd slow down when I was twenty, or thirty, or forty

But last night I was walking in the rain

And suddenly it hit me now that I'm fifty

My shoulder blades are pointy and my

Flesh feels less thick, more like gelatin

Suddenly, my skin was just something

There to mildly protect my skeleton

Some girls were in the restaurant talking about their charmed lives

About growing up rich and the many, many, many downsides

One of their parents used to punish her when she acted a fool

By making her walk to the bus stop and taking the bus to school

One of them said, Chinese food is so

Much better in China than in the States

I said, how profound that wouldn't have occurred to

The rest of us here enjoying the food on our plates

Spanish food is better in Spain, wouldn't you think, dimwit?

Southern food is better in the South, oh, you haven't been there?

Well, when you do, compare their grits to

The grits that they serve in Manhattan

Anyhow, young lady, please enjoy your food

Observe the homeless people outside, you're putting me in a bad mood

Oh, how I wanted to say more to her

And ask what she'd like to say on her

Tombstone when her charmed life is over

But I walked back up High Street in the rain

Came back to my apartment, got tucked into my

Bed with my girlfriend's cat and turned on CNN

Fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles were sent over to Syria