BEHIND CLOSED DOORS — THE PLEASURE OF EXTRACOURSE

Parked away

are the loneliest people

who don’t want to live,

but don’t want to die.

Abandoned by families

that have no room

for them in their lives,

and no ability to care for bodies

that do nothing but fall apart.

They soon discover,

all they have is one another

to be comforted by,

in the time-honored antidote

to suffering from aloneness:

To hold each other for warmth,

affection and whatever may be left

of sexual sensations, sheer pleasure

that no longer demands performance.

They pair off

like camp counselors,

and touch each other

by the sacred within,

a refined sense of touch

like the bouquet in aged wine.

They form small islands of love

that thaws out bodies frozen

by the unbearable stasis

of prolonged solitude.

Walls of nursing homes

begin to rock and roll

with bed springs

jumping and jiving

like never before.

Hooray for the elderly

who can affirm life

until the very end!

Milton