At Fifty I Am Startled to Find I Am in My Splendor -- Sandra Cisneros

[radiantfracture]

Something for the very last day of poetry month. This came in today's Poetry Foundation "Poem of the Day" email and resonated for reasons that may be obvious.

At Fifty I Am Startled to Find I Am in My Splendor
By Sandra Cisneros


These days I admit
I am wide as a tule tree.
My underwear protests.
And yet,

I like myself best
without clothes when
I can admire myself
as God made me, still
divine as a maja.
Wide as a fertility goddess,
though infertile. I am,
as they say,
in decline. Teeth
worn down, eyes burning
yellow. Of belly
bountiful and flesh
beneficent I am. I am
silvering in crags
of crotch and brow.
Amusing.

I am a spectator at my own sport.
I am Venetian, decaying splendidly.
Am magnificent beyond measure.
Lady Pompadour roses exploding
before death. Not old.
Correction, aged.
Passé? I am but vintage.

I am a woman of a delightful season.
El Cantarito, little brown jug of la Lotería.
Solid, stout, bottom planted
firmly and without a doubt,
filled to the brim I am.
I said the brim.

* * * * * *

May we all be startled by our own splendour.

{rf}