What falls away is always. And is near.* - Theodore Roethke

It begins when you are small:
some marbles, a jack knife, lunch money,
simply seem to vanish.

Older, the stakes go up:
lovers, chances, a bag of primo ***,
disappear without explanation.

In war, it's your comrades,
your lighter, perhaps your sanity,
gone in a ****.

And then the big stuff leaves:
wives, children, careers,
down the cosmic rabbit hole.

It's not all bad. No one misses
a mortgage, car payments or taxes.

But then your body retreats:
a hip replaced, wobbly knees,
no more rock hard erections,
the creaking back and bad omens.

Until, at last you are an old man
- sitting with a beatific grin -
        alone, broke, bored, yet
                                        curiously joyful
at having nothing else left
                                         to lose.

Looking down, you find a missing marble.

  ~mce