Being Wiise Forty

                                                     JUDY HOGAN

               Being Wise Forty November 7, 2021

Most days are the same. I wake early;

Tim sleeps late. I do my quiet work,

then read. At 2:30 I take my pills.

Then dishes and supper. I have helpers

in the afternoon, and Tim, when he’s

home, but I still do my part. I don’t go

out much. The pills hold off my disease.

But they won’t always. I never imagined

my life would end this way. Stilll, I have

this reprieve and only one more book 

to get out, and another round of classes:

Gabriela Mistral and Julia Spencer

Fleming. They’ll break the sameness,

wake up my soul, which doesn’t mind

the sameness. I’m careful not to ask

too much of my eighty-four-year-old

human body. I can only do so much

now, but in my life, I’ve outwitted

my chances: years in Russia, a lifetime

love, good friends, few enemies, and

people say outright, “I love you, Judy.”