There are things you begin to discover
as the clocks continue
their merciless tocking
like when taking a sink bath
in a gas station bathroom
at 2:00am
you notice your hair is thinning
your skin is rough or sagging
in places that once were always smooth
and taut
your teeth, slightly and inexplicably crooked,
have lost their pale moon shine
and begun to yellow
like the leaves of a cottonwood in the fall
you learn of these things, and they hurt
they hurt
until you realize that you are not a sculpture,
not some painting to be hung upon a wall
not something static and unchanging
to be marveled at,
to be pondered over.
it is then that you finally begin
to understand:
you, your life itself,
is an evolving
work of art.
live it well enough
and it will be studied,
it will be imitated
more than anything they could ever hold
within museum walls,
and infinitely more
meaningful.