have you ever rubbed a piece of chalk on the asphalt

shading some beautiful image

only to be washed away in next tuesday’s rain?

have you noticed how the chalk disappears under your fingers?

imagine the ends of your dna

(it’s a leap, but picture it)

a protective coating

like the aglets of your shoelaces

guarding the fragile building blocks of you

and once those telomeres break down

your dna frays

like so much loose cloth

and your fragile little human copy machine

makes bad copies

that is how we age

beautifully

gracefully

like chalk being rubbed smooth on the sidewalk

only to be washed away

in tuesday’s rain