GYM

The gym used to be hard.
Hard metal.
Iron weights.
Everything was cold and unyielding.
How else to have buns of steel?
Today in my gym, I feel like I'm in kindergarten.
There are balloons in all sizes and colors.
To sit on, stretch on, hold between your thighs.
As for pumping iron,
these days it's rubber-coated and color-coded.
Weight resistance?
Strips of stretchy rubber in yellow, red and blue.
Balance?
Plastic circles that remind me of hula hoops.
As I lie on my back, doing my sit-ups,
a middle-aged man teeters and totters
on a blue disk that looks like a frisbee.
Welcome the new fitness philosophy.
Is it better?
Don't ask me.
I'm still working the old machines
and my biceps and triceps look the same as
the folks with the funny balloons.
But it sure is a lot prettier around the gym.


© Ellen Azorin