I was feeling a light despondency
and I could not work
out where
it was
coming
from.
then I remembered
while trying on
sunglasses
at the recycling
store
as I pulled back
my hood in the
changing room
mirror
and admired
under the skylight
the last
colour of faded
-out brown
ginger & corn blond
going silver
in thick-seeming
hair falling
forward over
the forehead
I knew that
the minor but palpable
down
was because of the
balding spot
I had seen
in the photographs
taken by the
Show
photographer
during the Saturday
morning 2nd
judging
before
the final
catwalk!
I had, in costume,
felt emperor like
and clean,
and then, when A_
had posted
his photos
and I saw the behind
shot, saw the old-man
& balding spot,
and the stubble I thought
was hot,
instead, in my gold cloak
and gold tunic
made me look like
someone’s Roman
senator cooked out with
Caligula
at Orgy’s end!
Ha! Well, my body still
felt the imprint
of C’s full chest hug
as she told me her
blood tests
had cleared her
of any mutinous
division and her relief
transferred
into me, breasts
compressed into me
and the song, refreshed,
in her voice again, the
pleasure
I was able
to take
from her happiness
passed into me, the laughter,
forgetting my actual, still
happening age.
thanks, Mark
that’s a score. victory. great writing as usual