National Poetry Month’s Poem-A-Day 30-Day Challenge: Day 29
TIRE TREAD
It takes courage to grow old,
to bald layer by layer,
to flourish as bones grow brittle,
as little steps spark sufferings,
as cataracts shade spring colors grayer
with cancer haunting in the wings.
I have seen a person wither into bitterness
over all the trouble aging brings.
And I have seen another smile at the long miles,
bearing ache with graceful nerve, one with whom
I’d gladly take the hair pin curve at a speed
where others younger surely would have slowed,
but not this one, whose cueball tires still can hold the road.