?At Fifty?

Photograph by Thinkstock.

Click the arrow on the audio player to?hear?Eric Rawson read this poem. You can also download?the recording or?subscribe?to?Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.?? ?????????????????????

At fifty: they run a scope up your ass
?? and snip out the precocious pretumors.
You bleed a little. It?s a kind of test.

By then you have had minor surgery
?? on an elbow or eye, and at least one
pharmaceutical dependency to

remind you, having lost your religion,
?? that the body only barely belongs
to you and is easily corrupted.

You find hard patches and soft patches and
?? red new patches on your shoulders and scalp.
You can picture your bladder convulsing,

or if you can?t, they?ll show it on a screen.
?? The equipment is mostly silent, which
gives a feeling of floating in water.

From now on you?re something between salvage
?? and experiment. Everything hurts.
You bleed a little. It?s a kind of test.

For Slate's poetry submission guidelines, click here. Click here?to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=7260521bca3619fd5d8eb05d5fe564a5

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