Struggling back to life at this age—

but for all the bleary-eyed hours

and bone-jarring bus rides

for all those cheap-shoe blisters

and fending off the smiling fiends

the telltale eye bags you can’t mask

with The World’s Best Cover Stick

the legs that won’t shape up

and that fifth metatarsal that aches

where it mended—

the sky opens bright most mornings

in this lucky place where rain sprays up

and down the boulevard

the salty crows and palms wave you by

for all your sins for all your flaws

they wave you by.

 

Rosemarie DiMatteo received her MFA from AULA where she teaches. Her creative nonfiction “Waiting Room” was published in the anthology, September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond. Her flash creative nonfiction, “Crime Show Moment,” in the Bellingham Review was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.