Are Those Rubber Sole Shoes?

One day my body
will fall away
like a peanut shell.
That's what I learned
in my yeshiva days.

Those were just words
and that was long before
the nut started cracking
filling with dotted lines
to tear upon.

Those were just words
spoken with no due respect
to the irrelevant piece
the unessential
the husk.

I'm 45 and it's 7:20
treadmill sweat trickles my head
I self inflict pain
because I - the rider and the horse -
I want to stay alive.