Who said it got Easier As women get old?

Dec 21

Written By Ronna Magy

A cotton housedress of a woman

ace bandages circle

grandmother’s legs.

Safety pins clasp

frayed corset beneath.

Afternoons she

smells of flour

green apple pies.

I want to ask grandma

what it’s like

getting old.

Why she groans

pinning sheets on

backyard lines.

Why Helen Trent broadcasts

kitchen’s radio stories

not the TV.

What happened after

Bertha got Alzheimer’s and

Aunt Lilian died.

I can’t stop this body’s

counting the time.

How blood purples

top layers of skin.

Safety pins hoist

bras holding

yesterday’s dreams.

Why grandma’s pain twists

the thumbs of my hands.

At Dollar Tree I nearly bumped

into a lost woman

browsing cards on the rack.

Her hair smelled of mothballs

old Life magazines.

Those beige poly pants

checkered blouse

vintage Midwest.

She couldn’t remember

where she’d left her daughter or

her daughter’s child.

So her green basket rolled on.

Perhaps the next aisle.

Ronna Magy

Ronna Magy (she/her) is a poet and memoirist who grew up in Detroit and now calls Los Angeles home. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: Rise Up Review, The Los Angeles Press, Wild Crone Wisdom, Poetry Super Highway, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Persimmon Tree, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, and Writers Resist. In 2023 Ronna studied poetry at the Napa Valley Writers Conference. During the same year, she coordinated readings of older queer women poets for both the Circa Queer Histories and Outwrite Festivals. She’s a retired textbook writer and instructor of English as a Second Language.

Who said it got Easier As women get old?

On the Couch

Introduction