Pardon me I was distracted by thing things
I am a rather elderly man
Said Melville’s put-upon businessman
I too have not yet reached the most advanced stages
Went deaf in one ear can’t tell what direction
The moon still comes and goes
The garbage gets collected most Mondays

The drugs recreational and medicinal
What about morning coffee not something done for fun
Can’t start the day without it
I do enjoy the taste but labor under a dependency
Since before I can remember
I smelled the percolator

Specific objects specific events
An old guy about my age now
Strolling on a lawn beset with wild flowers
Sang an old song called Violet
When he forgot the words
Made an ostentatiously abrupt transition
Oh whoops exaggerated pucker and heaving chest
Began whistling the tune funny as hell
I call it to mind when I need a laugh

Things that happened forty years ago
But I can’t remember my password
My sons and daughters tell me you have to use
Some software gizmo so that you
Don’t have to remember your password
Obsolete now probably
I tell myself I remember the important things
But that’s not really true
The specific objects the specific events
Lying on the floor stacking blocks
Making the wooden train go around

Of course I remember the weddings the funerals
The serious illnesses the terrifying injuries
But that hike up a mountain I remember it happened
But everything specific is gone
Come to think of it I drank from a stream
And some smartass passerby on the trail said
Hope you enjoy your bear shit
That party at a coworker’s house apartment
I don’t remember
The visits to doctors teachers
The hours of revelry I was too high to enjoy

Spending a moment on a favorite activity
You can’t well I can’t write well about tranquility
Something demands commentary
Something demands some regularizing
Some missing piece some conflict
I make an ugly face I fear when I play the guitar
But I can’t see my face can’t control it try to forget it
And just play the damned guitar