Heart-Work by Vivi Steels       

Getting Older is...

caring for those before you,

caring for those after you.

Feeling needed, for meals,

for advice, for money,

so the slow drip of time,

wearing away your face

into that of your mother’s,

eases you onto the path

whereby you wear your skin

like an evening dress –

glittering with experience.

© Vivien Steels

Published in Reflections (Forward Poetry Anthology) – January 2012