This is 37 By Julie Henderson

Ffion Atkinson Flickr CC



​This is 37
 
Age forty is no longer
an abstraction
or a far-flung hypothetical.
 
No longer am I willing
to associate with
outdated dreams and schemes.
 
If only I had known
what would and would not
occur by this age.
 
Miraculously, I realize
knowing can be more
torturous than ignorance.
 
If possible, I want to learn--
now, not in my next decade--
how to not know.
 
No longer will certitude
entice and entrap and
hoodwink me.   
 
No longer will I think,
“Life is long;
I can easily
put this off.”
 
Life is an echo, an
unfinished sentence,
and a song I must sing.

​

A native of North Dakota, Julie Henderson is an avid traveler, backpacker, and reader.  A wordsmith since childhood, her preoccupation with language is a force of nature.  She believes, as the novelist Anthony Doerr once claimed, literature has the power to change the world. 

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