MID-LIFT CRISIS
just as an iridescent butterfly shakes free from its communal tent and to its former self dies, so I emerge, at last content (children moved to uni residence busy hubby married Insurance), set to spread diaphanous wings and fly the groves of higher learning: kundalini, prana, tai-ching . . . guilt, where is thy sting? GOING UP
GOING DOWN i’m losing my zip, my hair, my prostate, my grip. promotion blown, kids’ve flown, the wife’s confidence grown and grown. she knows she’s still quite a dish, skippers her own perfume biz but scuppers home. says i’m not her keeper. sure, i’ve taken a dip, and slipping deeper: the odd fling, burgers & chips, nips of gin, carpet slippers wearing thin . . . god, I’m hearing drip drip drip
Michael Small
January 22, 1994; July 18, 2009 published Positive Words, June, 2007