Pocket Knife for Midlife

A poem about change and some links to great writings on menopause

Who wants to talk about menopause?

Anyone?

Hellooo?

What about midlife?

Gosh, it’s quiet around here today.

Menopause, midlife, and aging in general are topics that seem to make a lot of people uncomfortable. I think of the piece below as a sort of “tip of the iceberg” poem. When I wrote it in response to a prompt, it showed me just how much there was to talk about when it comes to women and midlife and menopause. I’ve continued to write about those topics since, but I think I’ll start here with this poem which is perhaps gentler than some I’ve written.

There have been a couple of posts here on Substack recently that prompted me to dust off this poem and a few others.

Read this fabulous one by

Anna Maija

that tackles the shame women are made to feel around a wholly biological fact of life.

Let's not talk about the menopause

And

Margaret Ann Silver

, who runs straight at tough subjects in her poems and, with a wave of the magic wand I know she has hidden somewhere, transforms them into jewels that sparkle with humor and tears - she posted this piece about menopause and the medical establishment that rang all the bells for me:

Rage in middle age sometimes means mixed metaphors

As a season in life, midlife feels a bit like late summer to me, and those first weeks of fall when we have our feet in two entirely different seasons. Lots of change, lots to do, much that is beautiful, but lots of farewells, too - the death of parents, our children leaving home. I find myself taking endless photos of the late summer flowers in my garden, not because they are more beautiful than the earlier ones. But because they represent a transition to something new.

---

Pocket Knife for Midlife

I need a pocket knife
for midlife
with a keen blade to cut
through loss
and a file to soften 
the edge of invisibility
It should have one 
of those faux ivory
toothpicks to tease 
sleep from my damp 
pillowcase and a wee pair 
of tweezers to grasp 
forgotten things
A screw driver 
would be handy
to tighten 
what has grown loose
and a corkscrew 
so I can sip wine
with my love
in the garden
the bees drunk on late 
summer blossoms

Have you read something about midlife or menopause that really resonated for you lately? Leave us a link in the comments, please!!

Thanks for reading, everybody!