Contrary to what the theologians tell you, Death is not a homecoming but a condition from which the recovery rate is by all accounts alarmingly low. That's why most humans will definitely find a need for Be Wary of the Elderly - a summa of poems by award-winning novelist, poet, playwright, and proud seminary drop-out Allan Appel. Be Wary of the Elderly is lifelong reportage from the struggle between sun and shadow, epiphany and its opposite. Like the 17th century metaphysical poets, to whom he seems temperamentally drawn, poems like "Ukrainian Dream" and "Vaccination Sonnet" are disturbing dispatches from what old people of all ages are thinking but are reluctant to reveal, except right here: An after-action report from the field of love, a manual for the irony of it all, a pandemic post-mortem, a new translation of the silence, and sure, deft previews of the unattainable.