Salt prices

Tweak the radio, turn it down,

I don't want to hear the static anymore.

I want to enjoy the sea breeze and hear the kids laugh.

I want to feel the zephyr kiss my sallow skin,

brush against my bald dome…

Open the window, open it wider,

Let what is left of the wind rush in.

Don't babysit me because you aren't supposed to;

Let me enjoy what's left of me

because only I know what I need—no one else does.

Get me the pillow, warm my bed,

I'm tired and the end is nigh,

but nothing can be done.

I'm neither old nor senile,

I'm not so old I have run out of sadness.

Help me up onto the bed, cover me up to my chin,

Leave me alone because you don't care

and you don't have to feel pity.

It's embarrassing, it's disgraceful—

just let my breath poof in the air and dissipate into nothing.

Leave me a box of tissues or two before you go,

Put it right by the bedside—

I don't want to get up just for tissues.

Close the door behind you,

in case you drown in my sorrows,

And suffocate in my woes.