the sad reality of aging… from first-hand experience 😉
Bitter Reflections
The bathroom window’s muted light
soothes the mirror’s evidence
of the toll of time, anxiety and stress,
fooling the eye into taking less offence
But such misplaced vanity evaporates
when sun’s harsh light savages
and dispels the narcissistic moment
bluntly baring all the actual ravages
For, as towel drops in the dressing-room,
Truth is reflected in that mirror’s evil twin
The eyes drawn like flies to chicken shit
can’t help but take the sorry vision in
Oh, how the creases seem to multiply
and how the bloated body sags
How the measly muscles atrophy
whilst puffy face sports swollen bags
How hair, what’s left of it, hangs lank
and limp, receding by the day
Yet nose and ears sprout wiry tufts
just why they burgeon who can say
How thin and spindly now those legs
and flat and formless the withered butt
And womanly, it seems, those once proud
pectorals droop above a rounded gut
What’s to be said about this sad decline has
no doubt been said by many a great sage
Yet no remedy or rhyme could assuage
such bitter reflections on encroaching age