One of My Poems to Brighten Your Day

Winner of Poetry Contest at Writer’s Beat 2006

Free Falling

A generation of women turning fifty, kids flying the coop,
leaving an empty nest built with the twigs and branches
of Pre, Peri, Pause and Post , a law firm of old birds.

The threat of lost breast heading south, covering bones
turning to dust, no more turning heads,
the only whistle heard in years is a traffic cop.
Open a window, relief from the hot flashes-the same window
your sex appeal flew out of as cookies bake for the grandkids.

Society sends the signal, strap on that apron-slide into those black boxy shoes,
like fine wine, said in jest, we often feel more like pickled beets,
but our minds are still young butterflies beating against the march of time.

Don’t embrace the free fall. Crank those pheromones back up,
turn heads again with the simplest of changed attitudes.
Go Nuts like Barbara Streisand, throw on a flaming pink low-cut shirt,
wash away that gray, smile-ignore those wrinkles. Whatever it takes…
Be sexy, oh, yeah!