black 'n' white checkered linoleum

the crunchiness of whole wheat toast between
his teeth was just dandy. he sat there skinny,
old, and wizened, crunching away on the
hot brittle crispiness of the just-slightly-
burned whole wheat toast, savoring its sound, and
remembering what being young was like: the
perpetual hardon, the smooth skin and
the general muscular tawniness of his aura.
he sat there in the kitchen
beside the toaster, crunching away,
thinking what it was like
to be young, everything made him
think about that these days, toast,
chewing toast, the
smug look on the face of the slowly melting
butter.

--Carl Miller Daniels (This poem appeared in Chiron Review, Issue 91, Summer 2010.)