The face that returns my gaze in the mirror
Knows time. Knows pain. Knows
laughter. Knows life.

Hazel-hued eyes twinkle back, Brown
recalls loss of love and lonely times, Green
remembers growth and life anew.

Lines deepen, crows march toward a crown
follicles abandoned, hued ash to grey
reflect the embodiment of time.

Peering forth I glimpse a soul still
young, childlike, gay who only knows
to laugh, to love, to live.

Face-to-face with youth and middle-life,
a wink and grin remind me of the grace
in this moment of life.

So rue the passing days I do not for each
bears the trace that I was, that I am,
that I tried, thrived, lived.

Filled with the gentleness and fierceness
of love, my heart overflows, revealing
the fullness of my existence.

And so a new day not unlike each before
shines with promise, and the child within
laughs with glee at the thought.