Gravity's Crueler Cuts

 

Here are some lines from
Robert Frost's poem, "Provide, Provide!"

The witch that came (the withered hag)
To wash the steps with pail and rag,
Was once the beauty Abishag,

The picture pride of Hollywood.
Too many fall from great and good
For you to doubt the likelihood.

Die early and avoid the fate.
Or if predestined to die late,
Make up your mind to die in state.

Make the whole stock exchange your own!
If need be occupy a throne,
Where nobody can call you crone.

Think gravity's not your enemy,
that your fate's different from Frost's Abishag?

Then consider another example of fallen pride,
Brigitte Bardot before and after
an extra fifty years of gravity:

And then there's an old guy
named Arnold Schwarzenegger,
who was once as tall and muscled
as Conan the Barbarian:


Sad to say, even his carefully colored
hair can't completely hide the ravages of time.

Which is not to neglect the fact that
some younger people are also feeling
gravity's less smiling aspects:


As for finding a throne or
making the whole stock exchange
your own--forget about it!
In the long haul, the only answer
to the assaults of gravity is to cultivate
a soul, preferably an eternal one.
In short, embrace the Antigravitational
solution for all its worth.
Because, like it or not, that's what
life is really all about.