shot glass
title
"... brevity is the soul of wit ..."
- William Shakespeare

Clark Holtzman


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My Ex

—poem at my 60th birthday

My ex warned me this day would come.
It says so here in this note:
"I warned you this day would come.
And look what you've turned into!

Look at your puffy face, that
awful stoop, those haggard eyes.
Look at the defeat.
What have you done to me?"

My ex admonishes me.
It's the way of all exes: the I-told-you-so's
and heartless kiss-offs, the vengeful little missives
unopened in the drawer for all these years.

Well, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,
and so I look deeply into the mirror. Why, I am a god.