I ventured out and walked, and I got wet.
The rain was torrenting but still I went.
I knew where I was going I would get

dried off, and I had extra clothes. Intent
on buying snacks and boarding bus and train,
I let my pants get wetter than I meant,

and though the dryer here removed the bane
of late November storming, I’m still cold –
that’s more because of age than due to rain.

The fact is, I’m surprised to be so old.
It wasn’t any goal I sought to gain,
but months amounted and the decades tolled,

and so I have to learn a brand-new how
to nurture-warm a corpus that’s upset
by chill. I double socks and sweaters now.