Gluttony And I Poem by Lonnie Hicks

I have Gluttony's appetite!
my calories intoxicate.
Food plumps my mental wit;
eating slight dulls merriment.
Fill my tankard now!
Let Gluttony abound!

Heave comestibles round my plate!
Obscure my seat mates stick-thin bags of bones.
I vowed at 35 to then forsake
the premature death self-denial brings.

At death, in a coffin large, perhaps,
no one will shame or condemn me
simply because I ate my fill
and bedded down with Gluttony.

No one will say at my Wake
'My he looks beautifully thin'
rather I fully expect
they'll ignore the matter of weight
and comment 'Humm. he looks real good dead.'

So I ask why should I restrict
my draught and food intake?

I hear the cat-calls
and pleas all around
'Keep eating that way and you will put your health at
risk'
Maybe, but, we will all someday,
in life, check out through double doors on high
I for one want to order first
a burger and some fries!

Put there, too, in stone
my final epithet;
'He had a good time-
Ate Everything In Sight.'

PS. While others at the funeral
debate the yang and ying
slip over by my coffin top
won't you
some spicy chicken wings!

When they bury me,
ignore those munching sounds
you hear
below the coffin closed.
Some caviar, an aperitif
at work, I suspect
the happy traveler!

Remember this:

'Misunderstood he was
and, too, dear friend Gluttony.'

So Gluttony smuttony.
Who gives a care?
Pass me friend the large ladle
and an hour from now
all of this
will go to the wind!
Gluttony, Gluttony
friend to the end!