When old age met me on the bridge
I gave away the things I love
pictures
ribbons
champagne glasses
men
thoughts
flying from my hands like dying birds
that had passed through a poison cloud
shattering on impact
warmth leeched from
their bodies
dissolving in the wind
these loving things I shed like hair
each follicle yielded to the pull
until I stood
bald
pink
shining like an alien thing
empty as death.
CHIESA IRWIN
Atherton, Qld
