HOW I LOST YET ANOTHER FRIEND

“I won’t have anything to do with that vaccine,”

she complains, “Not just because I trust in freedom,

but you know I won’t put any substance in my body

that hasn’t been tested and approved.”

We are both old ladies. I don’t respond

with the same rapidity as days gone by,

and think first about how I used to admire

her wild way of being alive,

the liberty and ease of her ways.

And then I recall that at my age

I’m allowed to be rude,

And look down at my lap and say,

“What about all those guys you screwed?”