Tear up and wrap it in verse,
Truncate specifics away,
Truth without truth is rehearsed,
To get my emotional way.

No schooling or skill was nurtured:
No talent or passion within.
Near-convinced that the feelings were real;
Needed only some new safety pin.

Mother Nature gave me what I'd need to succeed.
Father Time insisted it was him I'd have to heed.

But death -our family friend-
has always been my favoured neighbour.
Never made me hate my frame or watch as others wither.

I won't defend what death does,
I won't blame Time instead.
For aches and breaks and shakes and strain,
I prefer what lies ahead.

An Expiration Date.
Best before
is not worst after.

But mine was 25 years ago.




An Expiration Date.
Mine was 25 years ago.

But best before
is not worst after.

I became the mask, that day,
to deny I had to heal.
Defied the tropes, and types,
to fall into others' deals.

The mask that am now,
a bloodshield, paper-thin,
stole from everyone...

...their sweetest friend.