THE SCIENCE OF WOMEN
There are small pink marks
softened with age
that only she will recognize,
knows how they adhere to time
and memory and this odd, shared path.
She has seen me as no one else —
vulnerable, prone, afraid —
allowed trust and autonomy
to dance even step with
training and science.
Partners,
she ages with me now
gray for gray and line for line,
our nods of knowing
the flash, the sweat,
the weight of it all,
speak more than we ever have
in these brief encounters
these long precarious years
of waiting and watching
tell-tale scars fade.
Poem©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.
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