Reading this. don’t be concerned about my health, i have some issues, pretty much the same as anyone a couple of months from 82 will have. There are some procedures i will be experiencing in the next couple of months to address the most serious difficulties, but i plan on being around for quite a while. i am hoping to make it to almost 99 like my daddy did, but i’ve live a much harder, wilder life, so am not likely to do that. i do think about what’s next more than i should. i’m still having fun. i hope you are also if you are in my generation.
i feel aging embracing me
while sharpening the blades
i cannot see
that will eventually
do me in.
i shall not worry about
what will take me away
for i know it will be earned
for what i’ve lived,
good things and bad things
regardless of intention.
the question is not
how nor when
but what remains
in my living
for i am blest.
one must step carefully
in this forest of diabilities piling up;
yet, at four score plus
a new vision of the world opens
for i have been there and remember.
i have seen the good and bad
over those years,
now, observing them
in the growing crowds
of people, planes, automobiles,
concrete and steel,
i think i understand.
i know i cannot tell them
what they should be doing
based on what i’ve learned:
they are young, impetuous, headstrong,
knowing i do not know what it’s like nowadays,
which i do, of course:
i’ve walked down that road.
it matters not.
there is a warmth in knowing
i’m not in their squabbles;
knowing living, doing the right thing,
or making the attempt
is the key to feeling good in the long run.
So, i read the headlines,
watch what they erroneously called news,
shake my head at their goofy plans
to make the world better,
which they can’t unless they
realize the depth of what i wrote above.
it is a pleasant world embracing me,
even with the discomfort of being
embraced too hard,
for, as my father said that i repeat:
i’ve had a good life,
have a good wife,
have great children, grandchild, and friends.
i just hope
when i go,
i go quick.