PASSAGE
by Greta Manville

Weightless,
I float alone through the dark house,
my girth of years shed by this day’s discovery
of the killer gnawing
within.

Sightless,
no moon-illumined shadows cast out
darkness to reveal well-loved possessions,
but I know each object
by heart.

Mindless,
I begin to count, not missed joys, only
missed sorrows, deaths I shall never need to grieve,
the cruel years of aging,
all gone.

Hopeless?
No, strangely I feel young again,
curious and unafraid to find what lies ahead,
over which I have
no control.

Greta Manville's poem received the 1999 grand prize award in Sparrowgrass Forum's "Poetic Voices of America" contest. "Passage" is copyright © 1999 by Greta C Manville and may not be reprinted elsewhere without the express permission of the author.

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