What Age Is
A poem.
Age is saying what time is it
Age is thinking in years
Age is riding it out
Age is waiting
Age is compromise
Age is gerrymandering
Age is unraveling definitions
Age is what happens next
Age is predetermining
Age is hollowing
Age is outside
Age is kite surfing
Age is tracing outlines
Age is defined by what it’s not
Age is one million dollars
Age is premeditated
Age is conscious
Age is embarrassment
Age is the nineteenth line
Age is three friends on a bench
Age is feeling the distance
Age is sun on your face
Age is a cold shade
Age is math
Age is you plus one
Age is lines with depth
Age is a mask pain wears
Age is waiting for a great change
Age is despising calendars
Age is not grandfathers
Age is who’s around
Age is easing
Age is not courage
Age is one step forward
Age is threads on a doorknob
Age is yanking yourself forward
Age is a sensory implosion
Age is deeper darkness
Age is dark matter
Age is between
Age is one vast web
Age is careening leftward
Age is tumorous learning felt
Age is remembering what’s not there
Age is adopting the blame game
Age is letting go of hands
Age is chasing sunsets
Age is deficit
Age is counting beans
Age is looking backward
Age is an unwritten biography
Age is all the shoulds and shouldn’ts
Age is hot tears and cold coffee
Age is recycling old poetry
Age is rereading books
Age is relative
Age is creaky hinges
Age is an opioid swallowed
Age is a stranger's editorial review
Age is reading your book by its cover
Age is a strange outpouring of love
Age is splashing feelings
Age is slow puberty
Age is reflection
Age is magnification
Age is curiosity renewed
Age is forgetting to give a damn
Age is control ceded to higher powers
Age is outgrowing the rulebook
Age is running for office
Age is advice given
Age is a cudgel
Age is wet wipes
Age is a young man’s game
Age is spreading outside the eyes
Age is pretending the story goes on forever
Age is beginning again and again
Age is measuring flesh quality
Age is an assignment
Age is social
Age is counting down
Age is stringy versus chewy
Age is a twisting of threads to one end
Age is a cobblestone path laid by clever carpenters
Age is the whimpering of trained dogs
Age is the silence of old men
Age is a staked shovel
Age is a leash
Age is too many pills
Age is banked flame held low
Age is asking why instead of how
Age is the anticipation of bitter regret
Age is sweet caramel candies
Age is bottled perfume
Age is kindness
Age is candied apples
Age is taking them to the Faire
Age is living for the wonder of wide-eyed
Age is introducing grandchildren to newspaper comics
Age is the flight of birds in blue skies
Age is feeding those without
Age is fortune paid
Age is a story
Age is a crossroads
Age is the separation of two
Age is the toll paid to the bridgekeepers
Age is The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
Age is half a swing set and a bottle of wine
Age is four boxes of empty tissues
Age is a ten-pound heart
Age is hurtful
Age is good intentions
Age is forgetting you’re ahead
Age is the snapping of whips on your skin
Age is bending over so others can climb up your back
Age is letting chubby arms squeeze your neck
Age is blood drawn by claws unsheathed
Age is the dancing of cats
Age is a trance
Age is not making time
Age is the abhorrence of silence
Age is dreading the monster inside.
Age is confusing the angry man with the man who is angry.
Age is the persuasion of contentment.
Age is sixty-five years old.
Age is fifty years old.
Age is thirty.
Age is turning corners.
Age is forgetting what is, is.
Age is the blundering of meaning-making.
Age is asking what they really mean and failing to take them at their word.
Age is the crashing of words against experience.
Age is the slow-wearing of wisdom.
Age is soft socks worn through.
Age is comfortable.
Age is the crowing of gulls.
Age is the sand scratching between toes.
Age is the following of sailboats that look like postcards.
Age is waving to relatives poised to set sail to distant shores unknown.
Age is hanging up one’s cloak and putting away the sword.
Age is the unclenching of asscheeks.
Age is tight shoulders.
Age is resignment.
Age is not a rocked boat.
Age is the gentle rocking of chairs.
Age is hand-crafted and well-loved replicas.
Age is the sudden appearance of periods at ends of sentences.
Age is wondering where it all began.
Age is where it ended.
Age is wanting more.
Age is passive.
Age is dimming the lights.
Age is television and leather couches.
Age is shopping at thrift stores for memories.
Age is purchasing used time and having it be good enough.
Age is choosing the path well-traveled.
Age is the burbling of brooks.
Age is the babble of birds.
Age is a patient.
Age is a warm bath.
Age is a servant in blue.
Age is hospital gowns for you.
Age is the pity of the blind, deaf, and dumb.
Age is being led by well-wishes.
Age is sweet bedside flowers.
Age is early retirement.
Age is flat.
Age is lying down.
Age is the crinkle of plastic.
Age is counting the cracks between tiles.
Age is remembering to breathe between beeps.
Age is trading fear for company.
Age is saying I’m fine.
Age is letting go.
Age is lonely.
Age is drifting.
Age is days passing.
Age is the chill of drafts.
Age is not many visitors anymore.
