slow retirement community by Ben Newell

Hands gripping the wheel,

I drive past the facility 

and frown at the yellow sign

and wonder where the others 

are expected to live,

the old folks who insist age

is just a number,

the old folks who still dance

and drink and smoke and hope

to go out with a bang.

Ben Newell dropped out of the Bennington Writing Seminars during his first semester, eventually resuming his studies at Spalding University where he earned an MFA. He lives, writes, works in Mississippi.