Arlene Corwin Poetry

         A Biological Consideration

I fooled age (well, thought I did)

And thought I could,

But age caught up.

Joint yelled; one swelled;

Odd ache;

Asleep, one woke – awake

Sometimes one hour in the night,

Sometimes each second, third…

The point is, nature took a bite

Out of what used to be sleep’s time right.

Talk of ‘bite’, the gums fell sick,

As if a clock that sat unwound

Had suddenly begun to tick,

And teeth so white, and tooth so sound

Began to loosen, wear away and quite

Alarmingly to beige,

The coffee too, revealing age.

Each year a badge,

A token sign that shocks

From witlessness and past abuse;

Naiveté, where unseen clocks

Expose a you, you thought was them.

Fascinated by these signs,

Symptoms that I feel and see;

Mirrors that show lines

I must repeatedly accept as me;

Coup d’états, shifting sands:

Pre-determined sleights of hand –

They haven’t stopped.

Steeped in aging’s out-of-step,

Expecting to accept more yet;

Giving up the role of Thor,

Accepting to expect yet more.

One just surrenders for,

One must.

A Biological Consideration 2.2.1999/re-worked 5.22.2011/reworked for Birth, Death & InBetween 8.27.2012

Circling Round Woman; Circling Round Nature; Nature In & Of Reality; Circling Round Time II; Birth, Death & InBetween;

Arlene Corwin