On Being Propositioned at 60

by Kathryn Jacobs

At birth we're more like angel food, all fluff

and sponge and cream of tartar, till the years

compress us, make us savory like fudge,

or rich and dense like cheesecake. One small wedge

is all the tongue can handle now that we're

so concentrated, tart and sweet enough

to make you shiver, flavors too intense

for neophytes who feed on Wonder bread

and Kraft and hot dogs – for whom bland is king;

those smooth blank faces. Start by coveting

your comfort foods then. Because once you've fed

on those of us whom time has textured, dense

is all you're going to want, and you're too tame

to interest us. But thank you all the same –

* * * * *

"On Being Propositioned at 60" was first published in Voices on the Wind. 

Kathryn Jacob is a professor at Texas A & M - C and Editor of Road Not Taken. She has five volumes of poetry out: two of them anthologies and three chapbooks. The most recent is Wedged Elephant, by Kelsay Press. She also has a book from University Press of Florida called Marriage from Chaucer to the Renaissance Stage. She has twenty-something articles, and she has published well over a hundred poems at journals like Voices on the Wind, Acumen, Mezzo Cammin, Measure, and Southern Poetry Anthology.