Death Threat

Death Threat

Death don't mean shit
not at my age.
Threaten me with
five more years of living
and those eighteen pills a day
I must take to function
at a fourth the operating speed
I once was
when I was that me I remember.

Tell me my legs will cramp
wake me out of a sound sleep.
My prostate will remain swollen
colitis will continue to plague me.
Remind me of how my children will
fight just outside my bedroom door
about who will do or not do what
with me.

Threaten me with the peace
I'm look forward to with life,
by letting me live in a house
I'm unable to leave without
a portable oxygen tank.

Threaten me with those four
different doctors
I must visit
and the people I must depend on
to cook and care for me
While death takes its sweet time
finding its way to
this tired old body of mine
a while longer