How to Grow Old
Don’t fret about
the champagne-glass
neck.
Drink champagne.
Inner-arm flesh,
crepe bat wings.
Train for night flights.
Expect body hair
to
thin,
disappear,
Alpinize.
Trash tweezers,
shavers.
In the bath,
discover a warm atoll
of flesh on the belly.
Cup gently in your hands
like raw tortilla dough.
Admire its satin finish.
Give thanks.
One day you will wake
astonished as Gregor Samsa
and find you have
transmogrified into a volcano.
Think Parícutin, Popo, Ixta, Orizaba.
Give yourself a cool new name,
preferably with an “x” or “z” or “tl”:
Xandra Xiznerox
Zandra Zixneroz
XXandra ZZizneroz
Xztl Zxtl.
Spew smoke. Spew cinder. On
occasion, totally appropriate to
toss rocks. Pumice is popular.
Work on looking like Coatlicue.
Practice divining with an obsidian mirror.
Peer with sincerity daily.
It will tell you what you dread to hear.
Get used to it.