Anthony Bianco Poet Free verse

Lizard Man

A coworker once warned me
"You'd better have a plan when you retire."
I half-joked, I was going to "turn lizard and sleep on a rock
and have the most spectacular weeds on the block."

Eventually I retired .... without a plan.
A rather reckless split-second decision.
I'd grown tired of the rats and the piper man.
Endless role-playing- shallow shop talk-the mundane tasks.
Halls filled with frog-mouthed back jabbers.
So, I walked away without a parade.
Like I'd done in high school decades before.
I tasted the illusion of freedom but was thoroughly clueless. 
There was also the slow simmer of terror in my brain pan.
 
I retired without a plan.
40 hours/per is a large black hole to placate.
Goals are vague, a lounge in the shade of no urgency.
I've no sharp desire to tango with a society that's turned frantic and feral.  
A hyper-rabid froth of mayhem and peril.
Time has turned into an amphetamine-popping entity.
While space is imploding and fragmenting.
My thinking is shallow, condensed without continuity.

I retired without a plan.
The months are blowing by.
Loves die, painting black holes where there once was light. 
Acquaintances drifting away in nonchalant clusters. 
I feel little desire to shock the world.
I sleep like a drunk infant.
Exhaustion is a treasured friend that stayed too long.
My hygiene has taken a big hit.
There are no company picnics to prim for.
I'm waddling around the last bends.
Paying hell's rent...a few months in advance.
I sleep on a rock bathed in blue light.

I retired without a plan, then turned into a lizard man.

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Andrea Dietrich February 7, 2026 at 12:36 PM Arthritic bullfrog exactly describes my husband since his industrial accident which stopped him from working past age 67. Some days I just keep in my pj's. And he won't even go out at all except for dr. Apps. The only decent thing is Medicare! Anyway. This is a fave.

Andrea Dietrich February 7, 2026 at 12:33 PM Wow. This is really strong stuff, Anthony. So glad I decided to check out poets I haven't seen in a while. My hubbie and I only had sort of a plan. We didn't get our retirement plan in place until we were about 50 and neither of us had 401 k or anything like that because I worked at a low paying private ESL school he was self employed for so long. Things are not terrible for us but honestly, now at age 70, I can see a future where it will be harder and harder to pay the bills.