Ivan Jenson

Lifetime Achievement

First you take sixty odd years
of muddling through the foliage
like someone half your age
with twice the gusto
and three times
the misplaced ambition
and add the elements
like hot, cold and sub-zero luck
and the unlikelihood
that lightning might strike
twice in your lifetime
as it did when you were
all wet under the nose and ears
during those sordid solid gold years
when everything fell into place
right in front of your face
with its expression
of bewilderment at best
and you pounded your chest
like a Tarzan in your “can do” days
it was all work and all play
under the hot rays of
fun-for-fun’s-sake sun
give or take
some unbearable sorrows
and fears that one day you’d
have to live in the down-and-out
up-and-coming tomorrows
which have now
finally come to pass
so congratulations on making
it this far into your personal story
where you played the hero
and the antagonist to the hilt
no need to feel
imposter syndrome guilt
for you are one hundred percent
the genuine real thing—
a frenetic, pathetic
and yet somehow
still a terrific
human being