SOMETIMES, an excerpt from Bear in Mind.

Sometimes,
in the early mornings,
as she lies in bed
thoughts will visit her,
and she feels almost normal.

When she rises, the gaps appear.
“When I turned eighty, I was elated.
Now it’s all so altered—
not better or worse, but different—
I couldn’t have imagined it.”

With less, she takes less for granted,
her once prickly self-absorption
smoothed to tempered gratitude.