The cost of age is charged in starts and fits –
to few somatic failures are a blitz.
The first attack on me was gum decay,
and soon my neck was wrecked for sideways play,
but after treatment I enjoyed respites.

On lumbar left I suffered next the hits
of herniated disk – it was the pits.
But oxy and new stretches helped defray
the cost of age.

The course of wearing rests but never quits.
Though one avoids complaints, and counterfeits
a limberness, at times the shoulders pay,
and hips and knees chip in at end of day.
No lucky elder fails to fail, for it’s
the cost of age.

(Rondeau)