Testament

When I am an old woman,
I shall not wear purple with a red hat
I shall not wear anything at all!
I shall join a nudist colony in the South of France
and stun eighty years worth of kinfolk and friends
with my broad-minded acceptance of my
beautiful, broad-beamed self and my amazing
recovery from a livetime of laytex dependency.

Or
I shall follow the example of Miss Lillian and
perambulate with the Peace Corps into the wilds
of some uncertain, uncivilized country
where my octogenarian expertise
with words and wood and mascara wands
will imbue untold numbers of tribal women
with the gifts of literature, lovely log houses,
and longer lashes.

OrI shall purchase a pavillion near Walden Pond
and open a restaurant for starving artistes.
The walls will be covered with
register tape sonnets and paper napkin sketches
and I’ll serve chai and bagels and grits
and play beach music and Bach
until dawn.

Butwhatever I do in my final days,
I shall not wear purple with a red hat,
and I shall not go gentle into
that last good night.

Jayne Jaudon Ferrer