Old and Ugly

How am I? A raving lunatic
old and fat
and gray
and for the first time
married to a younger man

my clothes buldge in awkward places
I snap at Asian women
my daughters in law
and me resenting their youth
appalled at their children
how neat and tidy their clothes their hair
how easily they melt to orders
how little they question
how quickly they respond and don't resist

You can twist williow
if you leave it long enough to soak
in the marshy river bends
where the water pools
and bugs skitter
no fingers bleed

but not old oak
where the oak grows
deep roots
in the dry coast hills
branches snap in the hot wind
that fans fire
and trails of ashes
make way for next years grassland