Turtle

I am 19
Living in
Mexico City
With my friend’s
Family when we get
Off a bus on Insurentes
A big boulevard to visit my
Friend’s elderly grandmother
In her elegant old house where
I rummage old American Scientific
Magazines finding stories ten years
Old I read at ten or so at home such
As ion drive propulsion for space
Ships in no hurry for long haul
Runs when lunch is served
Starting with turtle soup a
Delicacy never forgotten
And as I sip some poor
Turtle’s life I think of
The tortoise and
The hare how
Turtles are
Like ion
Drive
Slow to
Gain speed
But good for long
Term whereas hares
Burn out their fuel too fast
And I muse at 19 it is better
To opt for long life not glory so
As to go further over time a policy
I still think best unless you wind
Up as soup in a mansion
On Insurentes being
Sipped as soup by
Some teen tourist
Raised on Rand
Corporation
Training
Manuals on
How to teach
Methodologies
But to this day Albrecht
Durer’s drawing of a hare is
Still on my bedroom wall with
A quote that the artist must
Live to paint and not paint
To live applicable to jobs
That help society as
Opposed to jobs
That hurt or
Deceive or
Swindle
And I
Am
Thankful
For my jobs
As turtle not hare
At least most of the time.