I won’t subject you
to the details,
just that I was biking
and then I wasn’t.
It’s not that my leg won’t heal,
just that it will take longer
“because of my age,”
the doctor said.
Which happened to be
on the same day
I learned that VHS tapes
were invented
the year I was born.
The VHS tapes
that are now extinct.
And now I see
what my mother meant
about how strange
it is to get older.
The changes suddenly speed up
as though aging is a thing
that chases.
First, a leg.
Earlobes seem looser too.
Veins have popped on my hands
as though families of caterpillars
are hiding under the blanket
of my skin.
And yet, I am still as bright inside
as I have ever been,
as I will always be,
evolving and unfolding.
See my light,
I hear them clearly now,
women of my mother’s age,
that chorus of fierce hearts
I will soon join.