Role Models

A first edition Hemmingway
displayed so proudly on the shelf.
Reminds me of Papa's shot gun
blast to the head.
Errol Flynn was "a man's man"
that's what you said.
Now he shares coffin space with
six bottles of whiskey.
How we'd laugh at Bluto Blutarsky
downing Jack Daniels like water.
The west L.A. fadeaway of Belushi's
speedball revealed the man behind the curtain.
Larson E. Whipsnade was much more
than a funny character to you.
He was something to aspire to:
Only drink in the event of a snakebite,
always carry a snake.
"The Kennedys, I've always liked them,"
you averred, "even Teddy Kennedy,
I mean, what's a drunken binge and
one dead bimbo anyway?"
Capricious and self-destructive,
all the men you admired lived too hard.
You'd say exuberant and carefree,
but others would call it a deathwish.

--Shenandoah Lynd