
Sharon Lopez Mooney
Poet & Interfaith Chaplain

If only it were a sure thing
Being old can provoke ire
Second toes begin to curl up and out, little flags waving the bearer’s age
They even have names for this oddity
Fingers begin to gnarl into claws of hunting hawks
Flesh can be stretched and pulled and folded over, loose and thin
Skin sprouts new gardens of spots, bumps, stray hairs
While the outside package continues to rumple
The inside smooths, evens, mimicking the far horizon of the sea
Fears slowly dissolve under the ravages of releasing
Worries melt into the warmth of acceptance
What didn’t work yesterday is no longer so important
Quiet nothingness takes up a little more space everyday
Forgetfulness takes up room in interior closets
Delicious remembrances gather into neat stacks and an array of clippings
Dirty torn yesterdays fold carefully
Into piles of sadness, tied gently with regret
Stored in the next time drawers
And we are sorry, so very sorry
That only some of us get to do this being old
Sharon Lopez Mooney, ”If only it were a sure thing”, from Hags on Fire, an online literary zine, ed. Laraine Herring, Summer Solstice, 2021, https://www.hagsonfire.com/issue3