I know I have a herniated disk.
My doctor told me 16 years ago.
He read the MRI and said I risk
a rupture if I fail to care just so.
And 50 years of phoning made a wreck
of infrastructure in my upper spine.
I’ve chronic issues with my aging neck,
and I’ve assumed the pain to bear was mine.

But then I started daily homely flex.
I took up morning yoga on my rug.
It humbled me at first, in some respects,
but I kept on, and now it’s like a drug
that seems to have eliminated aches
I formerly considered age’s stakes.