middle age

the midpoint between hope and resignation.

the time when everything goes wrong 

for everyone you know.

parents, diagnoses, marriages, careers, addictions

children, or the lack of children.

the age when, if you're lucky,

you've accumulated enough money to know for sure

that it will not make you happy.

tired out; at the place that runners call the wall.

they say that if you run through you get a second wind,

and maybe the peace of older people is just that --

patched sails belled out, carrying

you and your motley crew ever onward

into uncharted waters.

easy. the wind at your back.
all downhill from here.