Dripping away

Poetry published in the University of Queensland Publications Society's Jacaranda 2020 edition.

Hair no longer pulls in big alarming clumps

But whispers away, like a breath on the air

Here and there

You barely even notice.

Cheeks, once full

Find their way down the face

Moving from the apples of youth

Deep to a sagging jowl. 

Lustre wears away

The victim of a million tears

A hands-on-face habit

And you giving yourself away, again

You become unseen

Barely perceptible to the eye

This is a new freedom

Shed yourself and magnify 

You are becoming. You are ending. 

The body melts like a candle

Reaching down, dripping, drooping to the dirt

Spent. 

You are ready. You are content. 

You have been dying since the day you were born.