39

"I stand with my mouth ajar

while one girl who is 33 tells

another who has just made it to 30 that 30 will be okay.

There's a knack to it, she says, because

30 is when you say

I am who I am. This is it.

Just wait til 40, I think.

40 is when you say, Hey, wait,

I am not who I am!

Let's go over this again!

After that, there's a few more surprises,

if you get that far - 

that far into the woods you keep hoping you're out of.

We slowly morph into revisionists....

It's pardons all round."

(Margaret Atwood / Thirty)