59 and Counting

Pleasures have become tangled up with pain

How could I have known that simple things

Like the scent of a favorite herb

Would morph into something strange

Or disappear altogether?

How could I have predicted

A date or time when

The aches and pains of the day

Would hold me hostage through the night

And bring love making to a screeching halt?

How did squatting to face a child

Or relieve myself in the woods

Become so pathetic

That I could no longer rise

Without pain, loss of balance or assistance?

Aging has become a daily challenge

To face yet another loss of function

Some beloved hobby like reading

Eyes tiring and refusing to focus

Or hands too cramped to hold a book or knead the bread.

Let me cast my vote now

For euthanasia

Give me function or give me death

Let me go with some good memories

Of this body's pleasures and joys of life.

The Web Projects of Sondra Ball and Mario Cavallini