Holding On - Aug. 22, 2026

I stand back and take

a good look in the mirror

At my age, didn’t my grandparents

look older than this?

when I was 5, they seemed timeworn

already tilting and slow,

wrinkled, gray and fragile,

patting my short blond mop

I look closer and okay,

there are gray and creases

with signs of decay on my face

and body but I think my 74 is younger

thinking and acting than there’s was,

with more playfulness, snappier thinking

and a greater worldly awareness

and yet, I do find myself

steeped in retirement’s routine,

wearing out the clothes I like

and paths into the carpet and

hardwood I cross many times a day,

gazing increasingly into the past,

playing it safer and more cautious,

holding tighter onto my partner

for what’s coming next

there’s what we have in common

at some age, we’re all just holding on