This is How The World Ends

Realizing I needed glasses was just the beginning…

Photo of Stanley, Idaho by Carly Kimmel, 2020.

First my eyes start to go. It takes a while for me to notice. But once I do, I accept this fact with the good natured cynicism that I have used to usher in other signs of my impending mortality; the gray hairs and drooping eyelids, the way my body aches for the first third of every day. I purchase glasses, not the fancy kind but a cheap pair of magnifiers from a…