old age means having time to notice
every wildflower — chicory, fleabane
bladder campion, mullein & milkweed
tooth- & mother- & mug- & st-john’s-
wort, plus others, each with a name
I could aim to learn — a green spire’s
yellow blossoms, its new name
already gone, I know now I forget
my younger mind ebbs, memories
old & new, this trick or that, the cats
don’t mind, they don’t know things too
for example, why I don’t want my flesh
kneaded by outstretched claws
pressure, puncture, frisson of pain
passage through nothingness to joy
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