On Reaching Forty
Other acquainted years sidle with modest decorum across the scrim of toughened tears and to a stage planked with laughter boards and waxed with rueful loss. But forty with the authorized brazenness of a uniformed cop stomps no-knocking into the script bumps a funky grind on the shabby curtain of youth and delays the action. Unless you have the inborn wisdom and grace and are clever enough to die at thirty-nine.
On Reaching Forty - meaning Summary
Forty Forces a Reckoning
The poem depicts turning forty as an intrusive, unavoidable event that rudely interrupts youthful scripts. Earlier years enter gently, but forty arrives boldly, personified as a uniformed cop that halts action and exposes losses and laughter alike. The closing lines offer wry resignation: only a premature death at thirty-nine spares one from this confrontation. The tone blends blunt humor with sober acceptance of aging.
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