The best vocabulary voiced to me,
from one I dined and chatted with for years,
was lost in ravages of memory,
when he was under 70. The ears
of my ex-husband, one who understood
and loved acoustics, playing any song
by ear, who worked all instruments with good
ability, now suffers hearing wrong.

Were these sad cases caused by overuse?
Did they exhaust their senses over time?
My brain’s my favorite part – is it abuse
to exercise it so on puzzles, rhyme,
and thinking?
Use or lose it, I’ve believed,
and earnestly I pray I’m not deceived.