2023 NaPM 4 April

[RiverNotch]

Opening prompts really do tend to be the most popular ones, but the 2014 opener we've already covered 2 April. Instead here's a 2015 prompt for 4 April I find to be rather evocative, by milo and ellajam: 

Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month. 

Topic: Lovely ella would love to read a poem about the signs of aging.
Form: any
Line requirements: 8 lines or more

[TranquillityBase]

Reply to BrynMawr’s “I thought I knew…”

I always recognize
the face in the mirror,
it’s all the others
haunting the present
who no longer know me.
Only the lost ones
greet me with a smile
strangers now to time
but familiar in dreams.

[Mark A Becker]

Old Cyclops

In older age
men coax
their cocks
but only piss
in starts

and stops
less steady stream

more

lemon

drops

[Semicircle]

Frost

You notice small things
like the cold breeze at matin
and whispers under your bed.

Your dreams of a mansion
turn to a cabin, far off
in the woods

where
trembling hands
hover above
a furnace.

[CRNDLSM]

All my old songs bring tears to my eyes.
Memories refresh me as a younger guy
But fingers fail as if their tendons tied,
And leave the songs unfinished when I try.
I might take substances to help get by
But miss the notes and stumble then deny
That my inabilitys because Im high 
Not why my songs make me cry.

[Quixilated]

Gradually

I thought my parents were invincible,
immortal even,
but now my mom is eating for her heart,
and Dad no longer rides his bike out on the road.

I look at my own hands, my face—
funny how the mind plays tricks.
I never think that I have aged,
perhaps I am the lucky one …

and then a family passes by—
the parents looking far too young,
like children leading children.
Why are adults so young these days?

[Wjames]

The voices of teens
on the bus in the morning
gives me a hangover.

I can't understand why the kid in red
has rizz, or why the short boy
gives the skinny blonde the ick,
and I don't want to.

Someone should remove their vocal chords
until they learn how to use them correctly.

[Mark A Becker]

Why are adults so young these days?

Well Quix, the way I see it, the older I get, the younger and more beautiful everyone begins to look. And there sure are a lot of young, beautiful people these days. 

[dukealien]

Friendship’s Last Flights


First sign of aging in my friends
is when they tell me stories
they have told before;

I know how each old epic ends
in jokes and little glories
but I laugh once more

rehearsing times when each pretends
our tales are promontories
from which we still soar.

[RiverNotch]

Past Midnight


A girl I met near Moscow
I vaguely remember fancying
had her birthday today.

Her profile picture had
a blue-and-yellow flag
flying beneath her face.

When we met, we were teens:
every day it felt
like the world was ending.

Now we're seas apart
as we have been, for a while,
and the chimes are silent:

the feeling's given way
to an incessant knowing.

---

I thought my parents were invincible,
immortal even,
but now my mom is eating for her heart,
and Dad no longer rides his bike out on the road.

The generation that birthed my parents had a big die-off over the past year or two: between that and all them current events, this strophe's just been my mood for a while xD

[brynmawr1]

I'm starting to think
that life's played me a fool.

That my journey was to be
a vigorous climb up the hill

to my peak around age 22,
then a long decline of fading away.

But here I am, 30 plus years passed
and still I climb on not reached the peak.

I feared the stranger in the mirror.
Turns out we have a lot in common.

He has become my oldest friend
(and my wife also adores him.)

One day I'll reach the top, as all do.
Today I'm content to enjoy a helluva view.