Beauty’s fear of age - how true! – will always exceed mine
since I am old and never was sought after, tall, or strong.
My part in any group was simply for the numbers, not to shine,
now most are gone but I survive and my life has been long.
Blessed – or maybe cursed, with beauty – how then to ensure
that it’s your servant, not a master , bent to shape your life,
youthful joy at first, then ageing sorrow to endure
when gone are days as lover, star, diva, or even wife?
I think the answer is to build yourself, ignore all taunts,
not to surrender to the idle flattery of men.
Hundreds of years ago a famous satirist again
described in verse this problem, which the last years haunts:
Pope’s words: “Fair to no purpose, artful to no end”
and “Young without Lovers, old without a Friend”.
© MM 6.10.2009
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