Fascinating Man
11/8/00 Thomas Lipschultz

He was born at the end of his life
and lived all the way through his birth,
moving forward through time
in a direction that seemed reversed
and he never questioned a thing
for this is all he'd ever known,
he just lived and breathed and slept
until he was less and less full-grown.
He married once, he chose a wife
who was risen from the grave,
and stayed with her, a husband true,
till that fateful wedding day.
And after that, his college years
came down upon him fast,
from graduation to orientation,
he'd always had a blast,
for his friends had said on many occasions
what a wonderful talker he was,
at which point he'd have to listen closely
and state their topic or cause.
And whenever he made a definite statement
he'd always hear the teacher ask
for an answer to a question
he'd already answered back.
But this is when he started to notice
that things were harder to grasp
as his brain began to shrink with his body
and his wisdom severely lapse.
Soon he undid puberty
and spoke of things less and less
as he grew down into infanthood
and lived in his own mess,
and then, one dark and stormy night,
he was unborn unto this Earth,
and vanished without a trace
at the moment of his birth,
but memories of him live on
before his life began
and he, we always marvelled,
was a fascinating man.