At the Doctor’s Office

He says we treat the cancer

if you’re under seventy, but

if you’re over, we leave it alone.

It’s usually slow growing, so

chances are you’ll die

of something else,

and I’m laughing and he

laughs, no, no he says, that

didn’t sound right.

How old were your parents

when they died?

A lot older than I’ll ever be,

I say, my dad was eighty-seven,

my mother ninety-nine.

Oh, well then, he says.

Why do you say you won’t live as long?

And I’m thinking you can’t make this stuff up,

with your pants down around your knees.