more than one age at once.

illustration by Jeanne

In her story “Eleven,” Sandra Cisneros says:  “What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you are eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one.” Septuagenarians could say something similar, but it would take longer to say.  When we are very young, we view the elderly as if they were gentle aliens.  When my great aunt Ula turned 100, I asked her how it felt to be 100.  She twinkled at me and said, “You know, sometimes inside I still feel fourteen.”

In the butterfly

is the cocoon;

in the snail

is the trail;

in the bee

are more e’s;

in the mushroom

room to grow…