Mistaking him for her brother,
he cuts off
thirty years.

Realization

An old woman,
too plump to be pretty,
my lipstick travels outside
the lines.

Tea, Time and Tears

She sits in the dark
with tea and old photos
mourning the inevitable changes
that come with the
passing of time.

The changes are
a shock
to her system
as if suddenly
she woke up one day
and the children were grown
the hair was grey
and the relationships
were skewed
like an old
pair of glasses
she'd forgotten
she was wearing.

As the senses begin 

to thicken like an abandoned stream 

full of yesterday's sediment,

the inner eye 

is sharpened. 

The past and present 

knit together 

with acidic 

nightmarish clarity

and the full garment 

comes at last

into focus. 

Searching for Words

As the waters of the everyday
lap, and sometimes crash,
onto the shores of my life,
they erase the words
written with careful fingers
over the decades.

I gesticulate wildly
more often now,
trying to fish out the right word
or any word, really
to effectively communicate
what just might disappear
like an aging dandelion
before I can capture it.

Falling down the rabbit hole

Falling down the rabbit hole
twirling, swirling down the
narrowing funnel,
I go faster
as I get near
the
end.

The years pass by.
The incandescent twinkle
in his eyes remains.

the years disappear
like the leaves
on the trees
called by the bright
afternoon sun
i remember
afternoons in the park
bikes and guitars
walks and talks and time
stretched ahead of us
into the summer
of eternity

The Colors of Aging

After years of pretending,
she grows her hair gray
to show the world
what it has done,
like Jackie Kennedy
who wanted everyone to see
the blood
of her husband
on her
pink suit.