Ageing Gracefully

To understand decay  
you gotta feel it  
and breathe in deep  
like a marijuana hit  
down into your soul  
then roll the dust  
around your mouth  
and swallow  
until your stomach  
is full of years  
yanking out  
a straggly gray hair  
one more to smile away  
wishing for darkness  
in the bright fist of noon  
another language  
to be learned  
scrawled in peeling paint  
with no school yard  
to play in  
no teachers to hate  
and no-one to judge  
how exquisite  
that freedom ls  
  
nobody of course  
but you