Simian Crone

Written By Amanda Barusch

Down

in the shadows

still very still,

she labors away

Her widow’s hump.

Her grizzled pelt.

Her chin upon

her boney chest.

Others frolic,

scamper and collide.

She pays them

no mind, rubbing

something

so fast

her arm blurs.

She has a project,

an obsession, you might say,

What can it be?

Hasn’t she heard?

“Creativity peaks at 40."

A dark-furred monkey sits on a rock with shadows in the background, looking downwards.
Amanda Barusch

Amanda Barusch has worked as a janitor, exotic dancer, editor, and college professor. She lives in the American West, where she spends as much time as possible on dirt paths. She has an abiding disdain for boundaries and adores ambiguity. Amanda has published eight books of non-fiction, a few poems, and a growing number of short stories. Aging Angry is her first work of creative non-fiction. She uses magical realism to explore deep truths of the human experience in this rapidly changing world.

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