"the second noble truth"

as I watch my young cat sit in an old dog’s cage

I remember when I was 12 but wanted to be 16

and how I wanted sandy-blond beachboy hair

when mine was dry-dirt midwest brown

I had a friend growing up

such an agile, fearless swimmer but

all he wanted was to be a bruised-up skater

I think he’s getting divorced now

works at a school for the blind

and I’m pretty sure now all he wants

is simply to be back in

high school

was when I couldn’t wait

to get out because then I’d fit

in with the crowd who

stopped caring about fitting in

my cat gets out of the dog cage

and with his cat paws pats

with what seems like reluctance to his cat bin

and I latch the dog cage door closed

when he comes back still a cat

he cries at the locked dog door and

I pat him on the head for being so

silly

me I have to get to the gym

so I can get impossibly ripped like

some jacked adonis I’ll never be

a fitness model from a magazine

the ones I used to read when I was a kid

when I was 12 but wanted to be 16

and trade away my hair of rich chestnut

for that of dingy straw, dry spaghetti

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