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\u201cAn Elegy on Prosperity & Death: Take 65\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For those among us who lived by the rules,<\/p>\n Lived frugal lives of pubis-scratching desperation;<\/p>\n For those who sustained a zombie-like state for 30 or 40 years,<\/p>\n For these few, our lucky few\u2014<\/p>\n We bequeath an interactive Life-Alert emergency dogtag,<\/p>\n Or a dog, a colossal beast of a pet,<\/p>\n A humongus Harlequin Dane dog to feed,<\/p>\n For that matter, why not buy a few new cars before you die?<\/p>\n Your home mortgage is dead and buried.<\/p>\n We gave you senior-citizen rates for water, gas & electricity\u2014<\/p>\n \u201cThe Big 3,\u201d as they are known in certain Gasoline Alley-retro<\/p>\n Neighborhoods among us,<\/p>\n Our parishes.<\/p>\n Our boroughs.<\/p>\n All this and more, had you lived small,<\/p>\n Had you played by the rules for Smurfs & Serfs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We leave you the chance to treat your grandkids<\/p>\n Like Santa\u2019s A-List clientele,<\/p>\n \u201cGood \u2018ol Grampa,\u201d they\u2019ll recollect fondly,<\/p>\n \u201cSweet Grammy Strunzo,\u201d they will sigh.<\/p>\n What more could you want in retirement?<\/p>\n You\u2019ve enabled another generation of deadbeat grandparents,<\/p>\n And now you\u2019re next in line for the ice floe,<\/p>\n To be taken away while still alive,<\/p>\n Still hunched over and wheezing,<\/p>\n On a midnight sleigh ride,<\/p>\n Your son, pulling the proverbial Eskimo sled,<\/p>\n Down to some random Arctic shore,<\/p>\n Placing you gently on the ice floe.<\/p>\n Your son; your boy–<\/p>\n A true chip off the igloo, so to speak.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Giuseppi Martino Buonaiuto<\/strong> has been institutionalized for his own safety. He lives in that now infamous “gated, golf-coursed, over-55 lunatic asylum” in southern California. He is a veteran, former commissioned officer and contract employee of one of our government’s lesser known clandestine services. He holds numerous university degrees, including a Harvard Masters. He has been shortlisted for this year’s Ferlinghetti Prize and will begin a Bellagio Fellowship in the fall. His two children know him by another name.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAn Elegy on Prosperity & Death: Take 65\u201d For those among us who lived by the rules, Lived frugal lives of pubis-scratching desperation; For those who sustained a zombie-like state for 30 or 40 years, For these few, our lucky few\u2014 We bequeath an interactive Life-Alert emergency dogtag, Or a dog, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6597"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6599,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597\/revisions\/6599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}