.           Smoking Salmon


     When we retire it gives us

      ample time to look after

     our failing health faulting

     minds and broken spirits.


     Constipated thoughts are

    the blockages preventing

    us from interacting as we

   did when we were younger.


Some of us become reclusive

   we hide away from society

  our self imposed quarantines

become permanent hibernations.


Expatriation, migration, diaspora,

    the ones that got away fish

always wanting ever wishing to

get back to the spawning ground.


But alas, as is often the case, the

  dam weirs get taller, our lungs

shallower we end up foul hooked,

gasping at the gills, struggling for air.