#1042 unwrapped

crawling into bed

I am one inch shorter than when I met today

commitments, to-do list items, resignation, and compromise

are each owners of part of that inch

and though sleep will return most of it, i

am of an age when those fractions of inches that sleep fails to return

begin to show

ife has given me many smiles

But she has also made me tired

I am not yet halfway to death’s mailbox

But I’ve noticed time’s trick

Of chugging slow out of the race gates

Then speeding beyond belief as she moves along

I fear the day I arrive

But only as much as I fear that some of life’s gifts remain on the table, unwrapped