A single year’s length
has deprived me of the strength
seventy-four years built.
Like sand it has been seeping
from muscles knotted and bemused
by excess effort and misuse
and a lifetime of abuse
by Amazonian female dreams
of living by independent means.
Of course, all is not lost
and I need not count the cost
since enough strength remains
to tend what I must
before this lovely body
bites the dust.
annarino writes 