We Aren't Supposed to Live this Long

Why do people visit graveyards?
To remember the dead.
Why do people go to nursing homes?
To remember the dead
while they're still here.

History is to pathology
as tradition is to cancer.
If you have no hope
you're nostalgic.

Are you still alive
if you can't remember breakfast?

Be nice to your grandma,
compliment her broach,
ignore the tea stain
covering her blouse.

And respect your aunts,
after all
we came from the same,
obsolete womb.

It's always cold in Iowa,
but summer is the worst.