Lori draws inspiration from folklore, fairy tales, & the natural world. She feels equally at home in forests & books and has been known to get lost in both.

Aug 24, 2016

Old

My bones ache.
I imagine them crumbling
as I go to work and home.

What if they dissolve
completely
at the post office
or the bank
or maybe the grocery store,
collapsing me
into a puddle of skin
and fat
and useless, unanchored muscle?

People will step around me,
and perhaps someone will ask, and someone will answer —

“What is that?”
“That is a woman.”
“What happened to her?”
“She got old.”

— and they will wonder
how I could have let that happen.

And people will steer
their stiff-wheeled carts
around the spill.
They will tug
curious toddlers
away by the hand.

And I will lie there,
helpless,
until a teenage boy,
saving for his first car,
comes with a mop and bucket
to clean up my mess.