Thicker beard.
Consistent and stringent hygiene habits.
Less swearing, more silence.
Politically informed.

More attentive while driving.
Relocated out of that seaside town where people only feuded.
Avoids familiar faces, except for those that have been held close.
At least the beach is still pristine.

Some miles away, a man believes he deserves everything there ever was.
Indefinite lay-offs for current federal employees.
All military members on leave called back to base.

A box is somewhere.
It has food for one day,
Two passports,
And a pistol.
It sits idly by the door.

I am a lunatic,
I worship the moon from time to time.
I dream and ask dumb things
like love.
She asked me to shave off my beard as an offering for her,
For the moon is my goddess
I do as she commands.
I do not look handsome without a beard,
My nose looks too big for my clean face.
I won't find love with a nose like this.
The moon was playing tricks on me,
She only listens to wolves.

I thought I prefer to see his face
With no beard nor mustache;

But when I saw him,
I knew I was wrong;

And all the ideas of him
Was gone from my head
I knew I was seeing the man that he is;
The raw, the 2 AM version of him
Is standing right in front of my very eyes

But I still got razor in my hand
And a cream;
I was waiting for my turn,
But when he came to me,

I just stared at him like an idiot,
Smiling,
Throwing a glance on his pretty **** eyes
Admiring the mess in his baffling face.

I held it momentarily at my throat gliding
it effortlessly as it permeated in tears of release.

You should have known this was coming,
the signs were there, but I couldn't keep it
hidden. I released the blade upon my throat.

I held it momentarily, then cleansed myself
of a burden that had hung there far to long.

You should have seen your tears in the mirror,
that part of me now gone. Laying on the ground
crumbled lifeless, A history of growth now fallen.

My wife wears the sandals.
I never could. Must wear socks.
She says, No socks with sandals.
It's just not done! Sorry, don't
see myself with scented candles,
wispy beard smoking ***.
No disregards, it's just not my lot.

On most cold and sunny days we bask in the sunlight on our living room floors,
Observing the flecks of dust floating in space, detecting air we cannot feel,
but once in awhile the urge to run becomes overwhelming...

"At least it's sunny" we say as the zipper pulls up around the neck, two long sleeve layers under the jacket, and a hat makes us just about set.

Now if you're like me you wear two layers one thin and one thick for below the waist, not this guy, he went with the tried and true one layer winter tights complete with the red stripe to match his jacket...

As for the the shoes I can not say, for I was in a vehicle and we were going opposite ways, but they must have been warm because the only part of him that was frozen was his mustache.