Ancient

I feel so foreign to myself
Aging day by day
The signs of all this oldness
Just won’t go away

The outside looks so ancient
But the inside looks so new
If only the world could see
The inside of me too

I stare into the mirror
Wondering where time flew
The years they went right past me
And then I somehow grew

Young and beautiful one moment
Old and gray the next
Why we can’t all stay young
Leaves me so perplexed

© 2023 Michelle Cook


Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/hands-human-old-human-age-seniors-4051469/

Wrinkle Road

It all began
on wrinkle road
a story so profound
it must be told

But who am I
to expose the truth
and knowing the world
they’ll just want proof

So back n forth I go
holding my tongue
with sweaty hands
ready to be wrung

Juicy details
begging to burst
but I’m just me
and my lips are pursed

Looking around
no soul to tell
helps quiet my mind
and the images quell

So I’ll save my story
for another day
too good to tell
anyway

© 2023 Michelle Cook


Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/wrinkled-old-faded-paper-past-470799/

*On my recent adventure to visit my family, I encountered a road named Wrinkle Rd. I was driving about in the middle of nowhere when I saw the road, and the name just sort of stuck with me for the rest of the day. So after much deliberation, I finally decided to challenge myself to write about it. But too many thoughts were racing through my head as I pondered such a place, and in the end, it seemed like a place of unlimited possibilities. So I leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide what profound things may happen on Wrinkle Rd. Maybe you can even write your own story or poem about what you think goes on there. ~M xo