Arlene Corwin writes

An Entire Slowing Down

So strange! This creeping up and slowing down.

So foreign, downright alien;

On and in a body you don’t recognize

From toes to eyes and size to form.

It all feels normal, going on from day to day

The way it does. Because… 

The goal is one direction - one direction only,

And the universe is lonely.

When you’re prone to talk about these processes,

Fitting into categories that you’ve read about,

You know something has changed.

You see yourself as in a looking glass, your being winched

                                                                   up to the angels.  

Signs: BMI too piddling little too much;

An unknown organ saturated; 

Too much fat,

Your senses not quite right;

Hearing, taste buds, smell and sight

A little or a lot on the discomfortlngly light side,

The skin, both out and in

Discoloured, smothering in dots and spots thus far unknown.

As for the brain: fantastic, sharper, more creative;

Living in a now that plows through those illusions

You once took as real: a gift to make a meal of.

But still, it’s slowing down,

So let’s not make too big a deal of it.

 The Picture of Mrs. Dorian Gray / The Birth and Aging of Venus -- Efrat Baler