When I was young I thought I had good teeth.
I felt my hands were handsome, in my prime.
I didn’t dream of damage far beneath
my gums, or plumpness suctioned out by time.
I thought my lumbar wouldn’t give me pain –
my bottom-heavy ballast would protect.
And though my nose was big, it seemed so plain
that sinus ill was nothing to expect.

If aging takes some courage, then it’s true
it also will provoke humility.
No matter how deliberate the view
ahead, we don’t suspect how we will be.
No sites of my malfunction were foretold,
when I from youth envisioned being old.