November 2024
Ed Ahern
Salmonier@aol.com
Salmonier@aol.com
Bio Note: I resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. I've had about 500 stories and poems published so far, and eleven books. I work the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories where I manage a posse of six review editors, and as lead editor at Scribes Micro.
The Faltering
In time the sharpest mind begrimes with rust
and memories are flaked from softened steel.
Beliefs once clutched and voiced in utter trust
now falter and befog in weakened zeal.
The brilliance once displayed now cracks like crust
and any efforts to reheal unseal.
The process always seems unfair, unjust
and moves ahead no matter how we feel.
Yet in the messy yard sale of our mind
and failing parts and leakage of the frame,
that which is lost reveals a simpler core-
a trusting grasp of those still near and kind
a sense of wonder at a losing game
a thanks for almost all that came before.
At the Health Club
The strain of muscles under creping skin
I best enjoy in public, paid-for venue
where as an elder I can unnoticed
observe the vagaries of the younger.
The kaleidoscope of hues and styles
Of shapes and shades and tonings
Are public display of inward obsessive.
An exception being trolling for hook ups.
Couples appear like lawn dandelions
rare enough to be noticed whispering,
and power lifters, bulging on machines
talk conspiratorially to each other.
The narcissi pose before mirrors
or on equipment facing their phones,
in barely sweaty self-indulgence
ignoring the other self-absorbeds.
I accept most, acknowledge many
and remember the names of a few,
A poseur with self-inflicted aches,
a shorts and tee witness to absurdity.
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