Beauty in Wrinkles

Carved from ages of smiles, of laughter,
nurtured by tears, fears, stress, and beers,
slowly painting the face of today.

For some live wrinkle-free,
unable to feel age,
unable to own wrinkles, gray, and pain,
unable to watch their children age.

They leave accompanied by pain,
clothed in coats of cancer,
flowered in joy and loss,
covered in youth.

As the wrinkles catch me,
I feel their slowly carved canyons
in my knees, my sight, my spine.

Pain—
Happy to feel you.
Happy to have laughed,
happy to have cried,
happy to have lived.

I’ll admire you in the morn.