Today on my birthday

Today on my birthday I study my aging face
and rejoice I've survived this long and hope
to reach another decade. My lover, my cats
trot with me on this journey over sharp rocks.

The valley below is full of shadow, but
climbing down beats climbing up. I went
where I wanted to go whenever I could.
What fruit hung from the trees I tasted

without a serpent's urging, and sweet
and sour and bitter; all quenched my thirst.
I climbed where the eagles circled and hung
on the updrafts and I saw what they saw

and it was good. When my eyes failed
night held me in its warm feathered embrace.
When my sight was restored, I danced
in the rainbow and light entered my veins.

Vanity was never my vice. No: lust
and curiosity lashed me forward. Men
called me pretty but I never cared.
When it stopped I shrugged. What

I am has never resided in others' eyes.
I possessed my will like a magic horse
and high I rode, dangerously close
to the sun but never melting except

much lower down in the hot mouth
of night. At twenty I liked the Wyf
of Bath, who had her world as in her
time, and I took her flag for my own.

Some experiences skitter off our brains
like hot fat on a wet griddle, and some
seep into our bones, and when we die
our skulls grin to recall them.

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