I tried to print Armondo Valintinetti
last night but failed once again
At twenty he joined the Navy
and stayed two decades
then arrived at Spinoza HS
teaching for twenty-two years
and all that time
a perfect gentleman.
At sixty-two he retired
but the Principal
hired him to return three days a week
to mentor new teachers.
As the union guy
he asked me questions like,
“As a retiree
how many times a year
can I visit the dentist
for a cleaning? ”
“Once every six months, Val, ”
I said to him
then for some reason
perhaps the word clean setting me
off, I said,
“Can’t do my laundry
can’t even pick up dirty garments
from the floor, just step over ‘em.”
He said, “I wash my clothes every day
in my apartment.”
Slowly
couldn’t remember the exact day
I noticed Val had become slim
emaciated
others also witnessed the change
and after Christmas Vacation
he was dead
buried alone
ten days
in his apartment on Parrott Street
before his brother found him
and I wept
the solitary coffin time
more than I could imagine
never married
and for twenty years at Spinoza
no girlfriend every mentioned
or sad secret passion
but I knew: life without intimacy
and a penis wrinkled
even before the grave
would do its terrible work.
Dr. Irving Lebowitz
an almost Orthodox Jew
said he feared AIDS
the cause of Val’s death
“I hope so, ” I said.

Charles Chaim Wax

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-christmas-poem-2/