any loss is difficult

including the loss
acquired with the
“gift” of old age
and bountiful health,
which is encircled
by the shrinking
and hunching of a
once robust body,
the confused look
and desperate gleam
in t he eye, the
tremors when hands
turn against their
own master until
all that remains
is a room full of photos, collected
mementos of a long life
lived, with a being
wholly unable to
recollect.

– Tuesday L.A. with hannah | April 15, 2003