I wake
Rub from my eyes
Hourglasses
Shake sand from my hair
Combed askew overnight
By the bony fingers
Of another millisecond year
Every cell of my body
a stopwatch
A calendar
A grinning fool
I am no longer
Mistaken
For my younger self
No longer
Required
To show proof of these
Sandy hours
Inside,
I look out from eyes
That feel young
Even as they harden
Squint
Hunt for clarity
Through a perfect distance
Perhaps this is what
I have learned
After sanding these eyes
Day after day
Like polished glass
To hold the world
At the right remove
To focus
I don’t think so
I don’t think this is it
My revelation
Purchased by these
Decades spent in reflection
I hope not
I hope instead
To live a startled life forever
To see time’s reflection in the mirror
And to scoff
That is not me!
The grey beard suggests
An interior to match
But that is not me!
I believed once
Time would comb my hair
Parting youth
And wisdom
gravity
Bringing weight to flights
Of joyful fancy
Afforded to younger men
None of this is true
These cellular timekeepers
Immolated
Reproduced
We are remade into youth
Cell by cell by cell
Every decade
Reborn
Time reset
Let time then
Have its false insistence
Its small promises
Its meager moments
Of petty cruelties
Turn me from
Handsome
To distinguished
Startle me in the mirror
Let time shake its petulant fist
All sound and fury
Where I live
My heart never ages
My eyes wonder to see
Where I live
The years are as reckless
And wild
As a storm
Where I live
I am reborn
Anew
Contented Under Pressure 