"But perhaps the hard work and adventure is over" ---
Flash Gordon clasps the flyswatter.

Retired or fondling
Oneself to kill the time?
Looking for the wave
That drowned your father?
Feeling like a walking headstone
Whose expiration date
Has yet to be engraved?
Put a heaping teaspoon
In half a glass of water.

No jittery after-effects
Or spiders with glow-in-the-dark faces.
Only a small risk
Of being buried alive in confetti.

These are the kinds of outgoing messages
One leaves as Satan's receptionist,
I'm sorry if your anniversary
Was interrupted by judgment day,
And so forth.

I think I'll end up going to law school,
But not next year.
First I'd like to discover America by freight
Or barefoot on a blazing highway.