Plush Featuring Sapna Pius and Horlicks

Would a statement necklace do?

Or is it the fire of a red dress

And a body that brings to mind

Heady twilights and champagne flutes?

Does it take a fat cat

With a penchant for posing

To bring out the contours of a women

“Of a certain age”?

Will it make her less invisible

For I can’t seem to find her

On television

In the picture magazines

On the advertisements

For beauty products or detergents or masalas.

Where is the woman who is

“Of a certain age”?

The one with her greys

And even more of grace.

Doesn’t she exist?

Where does she go once she’s crossed over into the land

“Of a certain age”.

~~~~

As I cross the bar to the land

"Of a certain age"

My persona will weakens like my bones

And we need to do some heavy lifting.

Metaphorically and literally.

As names and relations compound and hyphenate,

and other typical symptoms of ageing

like my dulling metabolism, skin and hearing

Brought my tendency to care into their group.

I realise that as much as it gets harder to see

It’s even harder to be seen.

And that maybe it can be a good thing

I realise there is freedom in invisibility

That the less I’m seen the better I see myself

I’m free to do and be as I deem fit

As I become “Of a certain age”.