we are always falling apart by Jane Ayres

decaying from the moment of birth

genes & cells mutating

waiting to stagnate

we live pretending

this isn’t happening

otherwise life would be

untenable

unendurable

lying to our brains

we all wear masks most of the time

the invention of an alternative reality

a contrary existence

unless you live fast & die young

like those beautiful cephalopods

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UK based Jane Ayres completed a Creative Writing MA at the University of Kent in 2019 aged 57. She has work in Confluence, Postscript, Dissonance, The Agonist, Lighthouse, Viscaria, The Sock Drawer, Streetcake, The North, The Poetry Village, Scrittura, Door is a Jar, Marble, Agapanthus, Kissing Dynamite and The Forge. Twitter: @workingwords50