Image courtesy of El Bueno, El Feo y El Malo

The years have added sediments,

Layers to her hard-worn core;

Each resplendent element

Accumulates and adds its lore –

Brilliant glaring youthful tones,

Subtle, mournful, painful hues;

Wrapping round her skeletal bones,

Percolating as they choose.

Remove one, and her personhood

Would be altered from its base;

Add one, and her entirety could

Adapt and find new resting place

For fresh material to stick –

Leaching chemicals that flow

Experience through veins so thick

That cross-section of life would show…