When my furnaces slowed down
and I had to eat less
or pay in immobile obesity
It was not painful -
It didn't actually hurt
When my vision blurred for reading up close
(mercifully sparing your
crinkled crows-feet)
It was not painful -
It didn't really hurt at all
But when the cartilage literally
melted from my joints
the bones tried to grow in that space
It was painful -
It hurt like hell
It hurt in a new kind of way
Most of the time
and most of the days
And more when I tried to play
It was painful -
It hurt like hell
And when my muscles ceased to get stronger
and instead they swore out in pain
they cramped in the night,
they cramped in the day -
they didn't obey as before
It was painful -
It hurt like hell
It hurt in a new kind of way
Most of the nights
and most of the days
And more when I tried to play
It was painful -
It hurt like hell
Life gets painful in ways that only get worse and worse
With decades perhaps of diminishing returns
Gone is the strength and gone is the thirst
And I'm not so sure that wisdom and skill
are gonna make up for the loss
Because it hurts
It hurts like hell
It hurts
Like hell
