And Then One Day
And then one day
scalp gleams beneath balding hair
Once full, dark
healthy Hair,
and yesterday’s grays
are silver tomorrow
and your filtered selfies
go ignored on social media
because you’re obsolete
in threads suddenly filled
with faces you don’t recognize
Memes posted by kids who
reply with “yeet” and “cap”
Your friend’s kids are the age
you thought you still were
before crows stamped their feet
across your face
Friend requests only arrive
sent by bots and
impossibly beautiful content creators
whose legs don’t hurt all the time
whose bodies don’t betray them
with pops and groans and never
give out while standing in line
and one day your hearing is worse
and you squint like Mister Magoo
as you pat pockets for reading glasses
just to read a text message
that’s only more spam
Grim reminders of how silent
your phone has become
You’ll catch up later
after your nap
but your bruised, ancient heart
aches because you wake up alone
afraid of the dark again
grasping for ghosts
you’ll soon forget exist
with arthritic fingers doomed
never to hold another hand again
Struggling to remember anything
relevant or interesting in your past
repeating the same war stories
Fumbling punchlines
and blowing your nose in a hankie
peeking at your snotty discharge
before returning it to your pocket
Slowing down as life speeds up
An impatient world rolls its eyes
as you fall asleep mid-sentence
and your confused smiles
don’t fool anyone
I was a young man just
a…
