Aging

Can you decline the decline
And still keep learning?
Is aging ‘maturing’
Or just fantasy’s yearning?

Do you mind when your mind
Keeps on wandering?
Or is that exploring,
Not really time squandering?

What about senior moments
When you know that you know it,
But the recall is stalled
And the lapse will show it?

Or you recognize a face
But you can’t place the name
You stall and stutter
And you blush from the shame?

Or your running has slowed
To a mere power walk
You don’t enter the race
Or even talk the talk?

What about extra weight
That hangs on your waist
Is it just redistributed
Or muscles displaced?

And your hair if you have it,
Has now gone all grey
Do you still try to dye it
Or endure what they say?

And you begin to ask
What makes you ‘you’,
Is it features that last
Or just what you do?

Who is that person,
With the changing façade
Is he a chameleon,
Or is life just odd?

Surely God knows
You are his creature
And he is unchanging
With no visible feature.

Visage keeps changing
There’s no one to blame
In your essence, his image
You’re still the same.

Ashes to ashes,
Dust to dust,
Even men of steel
Will one day rust.

But if there is resurrection,
Then we’ll all rise again
The very same person
With the very same name.

BW3

2/5/20