The Hubris Of Youth Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

The hubris of youth
Does not slough away
As we age
Like dry skin
Or peeling paint
On sun-assaulted
Pinewood walls.

Instead we live decades
Convinced that death may come for others
But we have just begun to taste
The bittersweet gifts of life.

We grumble to ourselves
And the sky above
As our skin sags and our back aches
And our eyes begin to struggle with fine print.

Until one day the veil is torn away
With one vicious tug
And we are forced to face
The reality of our own mortality.

Even if our doctor assures us
That our worst-case scenario
Was nothing but a fever dream
Fed by hospital dramas and Internet searches

And we are free to return
To our earlier sense of self-assurance
In a future that stretches endlessly ahead
In the same stable state of minor aches and pains

Something within us knows
That we have crossed over
Into the Land of Decline
Where each step takes us closer
To the finish line set by Destiny
When She first decided to pluck us out
Of non-being and set us on a path
Of becoming.

But now, maybe I will walk this path
With a little more gratitude,
Looking past my own complaints
To see the beauty that surrounds me,
To nurture the sympathy that could thrive within me,
To acknowledge that things may not be as I would have them be,
But as long as I can wake and stand and walk and work
And share my cares and burdens with others that I love
I have everything I have a right to wish for.