Foreboding Poem by Patti Masterman

He squawks in a high pitch, like an old woman in hysterics
if something does not suit him, if an object is placed
where he did not intend to ever find it,
or if he is not consulted before every minuscule movement
of anything in his surroundings. He will even throw or overturn it,
in instant imitation of why he did not want it here, or there;
thus himself causing to occur what he supposedly dreaded.

Every decision, whether worth a spoken word or not,
diminishes him, if he was not consulted beforehand.
The smaller he feels himself, the more vituperative he becomes,
until one can scarcely stand to remain any longer
in the same room with him.

Men become even more of what they were in youth, with age.
And every young woman is the warning of an old one,
And every youthful man, a foreboding of futures to come.