Old age lives on rumble strips. Emotion wears a football helmet, even to a Bingo game. Flesh in grainy crusts of cobbler missing plump empowered fruit. Only swatted flies get sleep. Only guilty chocolate melts.
Art is such an onus presence.
Candles on a birthday cake with frosting no one wants to eat. Visitors are teeth of pinecones rubbing up against dead shrubs. The sweet mirage of youth is gone. Christmas lights in bed pans under frozen fish.