Friday, May 25, 2018

On Contemplating 60 (May 25, 2018)


To contemplate sixty is somewhat sad.
Gray jowls loom, flesh cascading down sad cheeks,
Forehead floating like a fat balloon, mad
Vessel for a mad man's airy thoughts.  Weeks
Might pass, then months, then years, the rest a blur,
The promised ease a rush to easeful death.
Sixty becomes seventy becomes… "Sir,
Can I help you?  Sir, can you catch your breath?
Are you all right?   Would you like to sit down?"
Lord Tennyson once wrote an old man's rhymes:
A man who would not yield, who would not drown,
But sailed to find the undiscovered climes.
"'Tis not too late to seek a newer world,"
Said old Ulysses.  You?   Your flags are furled.

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