Contributor Series 10: Silken Rags
The Fullness of Aging: Autumn’s Showy Bounty
By KJ Hannah Greenberg
Bottle gourd or butternut breasts,
Watermelon abdomens,
Hair like leeks gone wild,
As well as vines of veins plus capillaries,
Designated to pulse, surface, burst,
Beyond the staid domains of “maid” or “madame,”
Evidence crones’ shiny new growth,
Elders’ budding in sports, arts, science, love,
Midlife mamas’ filling of fields better than can youth.
Such natural female finery as never experienced before
Decks gardens, gated communities, moreover hospitals,
Proves, again, that the fullness of age necessarily,
Also successfully, flouts lesser spans’ decorations.
KJ Hannah Greenberg’s most recent poem to appear here was Some Cranium Treasures Sit Derelict: Reasons to Be Mindful of Children (December 2011).
Beautiful.