Treasure your life when you are young. Enjoy every day, seize the moment, put it in your memory pocket. For when you are old you will have good memories. I have been married 58 years. My husband is in the Veteran's Home with Alzheimer's. At least I have those good memories. When I look in a mirror I sometimes look for the young girl that used to stare back at me.

The Mirror

Once she was young
Now she is old
She looks in the mirror
And wonders to herself
Where is that young mother
Who woke every morning
Looked in the mirror
Combed her hair
Put on her makeup
Put clothes on a shapely body
Ready to take on the world
Sent her kids off to school
Happily cleaning the house
Sewing pretty dresses
For her daughters
Watching soap operas on TV
Reading her latest book club
Novels and mysteries
Meeting friends for lunch
After a morning of tennis
Home before the kids to
Fix them snacks as they
Do homework as she
Prepares dinner, then they
Run and play out doors
She looks at the clock
Runs to the mirror
And puts on lipstick
He’ll be home soon
She wants to look pretty
He comes in the door
Kisses her and says,
How was your day, honey?
They eat supper around
The dining room table
Everyone talking at once
Telling about their day
She does the dishes as he
Smokes a cigarette and
Reads the paper or
Watches the Bob Hope Show
On the small black and white TV
The children take baths
Get ready for bed
Comes in to kiss them goodnight
Then after she tucks them and
Hears their prayers
She gets undressed and
Puts on her nightgown
Looking in the mirror
Pleased at what she sees
A little tired, a little frazzled
But smiling, happy and content
Her slender body and young face
Never thinking about the future
50 years from now and what she
Will look like, not knowing she
Will be alone, old, and tired
And he will be a few miles away
He’s there but he’s really not there
Something deep inside of him
Still remembers that young pretty
Slender girl he married
Looking in the mirror
She goes to see him that day
Hoping for a glimmer of the man
She once knew and loved
She leaves him to go back home
Still having that hope for tomorrow
Her body is no longer slender
And her face is wrinkled, sagging,
And her gray hair is hiding behind
The brown Maria puts on it at
Our Town Beauty Shop
She wishes she could go back 50 years
And hold those golden years
In her hand and never let them go.
Why didn’t she treasure them then?
She smiles at the woman in the mirror.
Asking, “Where did you go?”