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The Hand of Aging Touches Some Gently
Zack Rogow

The hand of aging touches some gently,
lovingly smoothing cheekbones,
forehead rotundas,
and the ogives of eyes.

For others, the hand of aging
sucker punches them in the gut.
Use all the oxygen creams
and hair balayage you want:

sometimes genes just have their way.
The men on my father’s side
inherit knees that give out after sixty
like branches overstocked with snow.

Seconds, minutes, hours, days:
clocks have the hungriest jaws.
Days, weeks, months, years:
life has no clickable Pause.

—
Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of more than twenty books or plays. HIs ninth book of poems Irreverent Litanies, was published by Regal House. He is also writing a series of plays about authors. The most recent of these, Colette Uncensored, had its first staged reading at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and ran at the Canal Cafe Theatre in London, as well as in San Francisco and Portland. He serves as a contributing editor of Catamaran Literary Reader.

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