by David Budbill.
I look at the wrinkles on the back of my hand,
or the wrinkles on my wife’s face and I understand
we’re not the same as we were fifty years ago.
It’s such an obvious point, so blunt and simple, yet
so hard to comprehend, to understand. Why is
growing old so difficult to embrace?
It happens to all of us and,
despite all our efforts, there’s
nothing we can do to stop it.
_____
from TUMBLING TOWARD THE END, Copper Canyon Press, 2016