Monday, May 27, 2024

Neighbours

 

 
These are your neighbours, now
 
grandparents to children as young
 
as their own were when you first
 
knew them. Some have become
 
firm friends, others have 
 
disqualified themselves from
 
that inner circle to remain firmly
 
acquaintances, but all are like
 
close-bound residents of a
 
small village whose moments in
 
life become public knowledge
 
by consent of the inevitable
 
or by design. Now the common
 
interest is the afflictions of
 
implacable aging as all are
 
bemused by the little-noticed
 
alterations in appearance, where
 
grey is the mutually shared common
 
denominator. That, and the growing
 
litany of hip-and-knee replacements
 
heart surgeries, catastrophic fall
 
recoveries and post-surgical
 
treatments for an encyclopedia
 
of diseases. There, on the street
 
 where neighbour meets neighbour
 
each sighs to the universal refrain
 
of time and tide's impatience.

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