The Seven Ages of Woman

 

I wonder how long it actually takes someone 

      to know exactly who they are....

we start a young child, wind under our wings

our mother’s daughter, father’s pride and joy,

already we are daughter, granddaughter, and niece,

all of these things in someone so small.

Next comes the schoolgirl: learning and growing...

we add student, friend, scholar to our repertoire;

perhaps even athlete and musician as well.

As we mature, so too, our sense of community

as we looks toward the future and what it can hold

and our pathway converges to coed and college girl–

the scholar, the tutor, attaining, advancing...

our life lies before us, the world is our oyster

as we shift to career woman, manager, boss.

Then comes a new stage on this path to the future–

deeper than friendship, a profound admiration 

filled with passion and fervor, unlike any other–

this need to exist just to be with another.

And so love evolves with its vows and its promises,

and we open our heart to a child of our own.

Now daughter, provider, friend, wife, and mother,

we watch as our child meets his own milestones...

while time keeps on moving, through gains and through losses, 

through comings and goings, through a young child growing—

until one day we find that we are alone 

for loved ones do pass, and children leave home.

Looking back now we count all the people we've been

the child, the student, the lover, the friend 

and now a new milepost on our plane of existence.

seen as sage and respected for all our experience.

Time, much like justice, tends to be blind

can’t know what’s before us, just what’s left behind

each act sets the stage for the next one to follow—

while the reaper, he waits in the wings for us all;

as for me, I can tell you, he’ll meet some resistance,

for much lies ahead till the last curtain falls.

 

© Ginny Brannan 2023

 

This is inspired by Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man From ‘As You Like It’

1.  Schoolboy 2. Teenager 3. Young Man 4. Middle Aged 5. Old Aged 6. Dotage & Death

Here I share my thoughts on the 7 ages of woman, with a bit more positive spin, I think. We transition with nary a notice except on reflection....and yet we are so much more than the sum of all of our "acts."

1. Child 2. Schoolgirl 3. Coed/College 4. Career 5. Wife  6. Mother 7. Elder

**For Alice, who grabbed onto a random comment of mine some years ago and suggested this as a possible 'book' title. No book (yet) though, just a poem. Thanks Alice, always, for inspiring and encouraging!