1

It runs in some families

this stiffening, in the early forties,

around the knee, the need

to invest more effort

in the flexion of thumb

and maybe the more attentive

hear a wind blowing

through the card palace

of their bones – a premonition

of the crumble

of resolve and calcium

and fortitude that some call

ageing. And so they pull in their limbs

like ancient drawbridges,

watch roaring desires sputter

into gentler static

though there were always other ways to get here.