Saturday, December 28, 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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