In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Forever Young.”

An involuntary whimper of despair escaped her glistening, vivid red lips;
Pursed in a pout as she stared balefully at the woman in the mirror;
An inordinate amount of gray had sprouted on a temple formally adorned with jet black;
The thinning patch getting more difficult to disguise;

The fine crinkled lines around the eyes, told tales of years spent and gone;
Yet her dilated pupils shone in wisdom and merry delight;
She loved life;
A bit too much;

Age had not been in the equation;
Yet it knocked on the door;
Each day, unfailingly, it came visiting;

Stretching the pout, from one side to the other;
An attempt to soften the stern look inserted by faint grooves around her lips;
Her fingers shook as she dabbed on more cover;

The girl she was before, long gone, nowhere to be found;
But it was just yesterday;
She mused in her mind;
Yesterday, her mind reminisced;

My Sweet Sixteen;
I danced with careless abandon;
The Bubbling Belle of the Ball;
The years stretched ahead;
To eternity and beyond;

And time stood still;
When he finally kissed her lips;
Alas! Age struck! Taking them all along;

But she wanted to dance again;
Just once, Just once, at sixteen;
What if? She eyed the bottle in curiosity and disdain;
A little sip could straighten the gnarled hands and feet?

Would the rosiness of her cheeks replace the gaunt face in the mirror?
Would it adjust the feelings of her heart?
Or erase the memories of her mind?

A heart that has stretched in love for decades and more;
His shuffled steps broke through her thoughts;
“Your coat, my darling”, He said;
Lovingly and slowly he wrapped her in his warmth;

Their eyes clung to each other in the mirror;
The wrinkles, the grays, the warts and all;
But all they saw was the love and friendship that stood through it all;

Then she smiled;
Letting the elixir of love take her away;
As the promise of Immortality splashed and dripped down the drain.