“This is it,” my father sighed when he turned forty.
“This is it,” he repeated throughout the next decade.
I wondered if this it was hardwired, if it was in my DNA.
I decided it wasn’t. No it for me. Fast track the adventure.

(Source: “On Turning Forty”, 40×41: Midlife Crisis Postponed)

[Excerpted from a four-part introspective poem that fluctuates between prosaic and caustic, and between despondent and determined.]