APPROACHING RETIREMENT

By Ralph James Savarese

Photo Credit: Daiga Ellaby

Carpe diem—it really means

to pluck the day—

as if it were an eyebrow

or a feather on a goose

or a ripe cherry

or a flower, this flower

here in front of you,

a daisy with wilting leaves.

What do you think love is

but the pulling of one

from the many?

“I want her,”

says the director

of a big-budget movie

or the woman at the adoption agency

or the man inspecting shrubs

at a nursery.

(He genders everything.)

But here’s the kicker:

you have to keep on plucking

until the verb becomes

a noun,

until your arm becomes

a form of courage,

until flowers flow through you

as through a vase

without top or bottom

and the glass begins to bloom.

The heart wants, it really

wants, to be arranged.

My students are confused:

I’m tearing up in class.

I’m reaching,

like a child at dinner,

for seconds.

Previous

---

Ralph James Savarese taught for forty years, at every level, and retired in May. He now teaches free online creative writing classes with his son, who was Oberlin College's first nonspeaking graduate, to autistic youth. He’s best known for his creative nonfiction--two books in particular: "Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption" and "See It Feelingly: Classic Novels, Autistic Readers, and the Schooling of a No-Good English Professor."

Next