Forty-First

Another second ticks by, then a minute. You close your eyes, and when you open them, another month, a year, a decade is gone. Your youth blurs in your memory, though it feels like just yesterday you could cross oceans, move mountains, save the world. Now, you have to be serious, responsible, an adult. Office – home, work – sleep. Another vacation, another TV, another car. You watch life slip right through your fingers. The stress bears down harder on your shoulders, bowing your spine toward the earth. Is this just exhaustion, or is it old age?