Poem: Walkers With Tennis Balls By Mark Tulin

 

Growing older

forces you to accept

change,

circumstances

beyond your control.

Nursing homes,

microwave meals,

arthritic fingers,

feet soaked in salts,

walkers

with tennis balls.

Growing older enables you

to adapt, recognize

the lasting things,

remember

the missing things.

Doctor visits,

rising co-pays,

bunions on both

feet, murmurs

of the heart,

on the john

way too long.

Growing older

humbles you,

prepares you

for your fate, head

and hands that shake.

Choose a date,

time and place,

pay the burial fee,

make peace with the

creator,

take a number

and wait.