Wrinkles

the wrinkles on your own hands (no matter how many lotions you have rubbed on them, no matter how much vitamin e oils, no matter how many antioxidants you consume---all in the attempt to stall or at least slow down the process) glare up at you. the small mountains rippling along your epidermis, the glycating process oxidizing everything, the cortisol produced as your own body’s frantic reaction to the everyday stressors of your chosen life---all finally add up--- and there they are, plain as day--- wrinkles--- those imperfections specific to you alone, but which you simultaneously share with every being still breathing--- those marks of age which signal the beginning of the end--- depressions, furrows, the scrunching & the shriveling, the folds & the crinkling contracted corrugations--- all scream at you in unison silently, but alas, deadly still, that you are mortal & that if you own a pug or a shar pei, it is true what they say about pet owners & their pets (that they begin to look like one another)--- and it will only increase, as you both get older--- just do you best to keep your barking to a minimum when you are outdoors amongst the rest of us.