Aging

7/26/05

The mirror used to be kind. 


Now it is like the mirror 
at the old amusement park


that twists and distorts 
me into grotesque forms. 


Yikes! 
The senior discounts; 


Kleenex to wipe away sweat 
from hot flashes. 

~ Sally Love Saunders


​

Aging

2/2/11

I wish aging


Was a matter of going to a terminal


Then returning back-


Like the trains that go


From city to country


Then back.

~ Sally Love Saunders


​

We Need a Book About Dr. Spock

11/23/19

We need a book about Dr. Spock


On aging


Explaining our stages


What to expect


How to cope


How to enjoy. 

~ Sally Love Saunders


Aging All About Loss

12/18/19

Aging - all about loss


Like the fall off
 of artichoke leaves


Green leaves that support us


drop off,


Then what created our beauty


drops off


until the heart


of the artichoke - 


The best part.

~ Sally Love Saunders

 

 

Used to be...

12/29/19

Used to be I did what I wanted


Regardless of what parent said 


or teachers in study hall commanded


Now age 80


It is doctors who are dictating my time.


One says 20 minutes "do this"


One says 20 minutes "do that"


Charging voices in my head


I want to just push aside


Their orders 
and again be a wild child.


Now I'm just an obedient 
old lady


do this do that

~ Sally Love Saunders

 

 

VERY BUSY BEAVER ME

1/2/20

Very full time body maintenance work


I'm feeling like the very busy beaver


at Brown Ledge Camp


whose whole existence 
was

plugging up holes
in the potentially declining lake.


If it wasn't for all his


plugging up leaks with logs,


the sinking lake would have disappeared.


So here I am busy going to doctors,


doing exercises

trying to eat healthy


Flossing, flossing flossing


To keep the lake of me 
full and alive.


Busy beaver am I 


Plugging only up the holes


of the sinking lake.

~ Sally Love Saunders

 

 

I am 80

1/4/20

I am 80


Already a bother


To young friends 
and family.

~ Sally Love Saunders

 

 

I'm 80 You Said

1/17/20

I'm 80 you said


but to me I'm a little kid


Playing dress up.


Have a mask of wrinkles


and a wig of white hair.


I'm PRETENDING to get tired


more than I really do


and am PRETENDING


I'm dumber with technology


than the smart young techie kid

I really am.


I'm 80 you said


but to me I'm a little kid


Playing dress up.

~ Sally Love Saunders

 

 

Am I Getting Thick Skinned?

1/15/20

Am I getting thick skinned?


21st century snakeskin grew


Keeping me from flinching


When heard again my credit card
was hacked?


Taking being hacked in step.


It used to be I would be stressed


Think of it - telling friends


Now it seems kind of normal.

~ Sally Love Saunders

 

 

Remembering Thinking

1/27/20

Remembering thinking


and thinking


What will I be
when I grow up?


Would dream and rehearse


in great detail


a Broadway star?
or mother of six?


Now I am all grown up


Up being eighty


What do I have 
to look forward to


when I am more grown up?


A knee replacement ordeal


With an endless role to recovery??!

~ Sally Love Saunders

 

 

When Is

1/28/20

Ahh!


One doctor says 
"twice a day for two weeks"


My physical therapist says


"Every day do these exercises."


Dentist says 
"floss teeth"


So many orders


When is there time 
to just have time


to do as I please??? 

~ Sally Love Saunders​

Johnny Appleseed poet