Aging Arms

arms are growing older from lifting

and freckles from the sun

carrying the weight

supposedly shouldn’t be

mother’s not the same

daughter’s not the same

niece’s not the same

woman not the same

and the arms continue lifting, opening, lifting

boxes, opening trouble in change and

trouble already filling the load

the arms carrying the boxes

seeing woman myself

as one of them

the muscle fading

underneath the chores piling

up for the house and

the home in the larger neighborhood

with lines and lines of

aging arms, deciding where to bend