Happy Birthday, Viejo

Happy Birthday, Viejo

-Geoff O’Keeffe

01.02.17, 1000 h. 

Born in the cold

dark of winter

hoping to die

on a summer solstice

one bright day. 

 

Reading alone with

coffee and a bagel

young red-cheeked humans 

with time on their hands

unaware. 

 

Baldwin said,

“To act is to be committed

to be committed is to

be in danger.”

So I begin again. 

 

Happy birthday you

self-illuminating,

fuck-up of a

leathery old

meat bag. 

 

Now, you can finally

sing that Beatles song

and put it into

the distant past. 

Take a breath, viejo.