I bet you think I’m going to write
About birthdays and getting old
How I just can’t remember quite
What I have or have not been told
I bet you think this is the day
I’ll celebrate in sad lament
But all that I can think to say
Is, ‘I am middle-age content’
I don’t mind swift years slipping by
As youth slips farther, far away
I don’t miss dream-stars in my eye
Lost in some by-gone yesterday
I quite enjoy my aching bones
I’ve earned them, wouldn’t you agree?
Lamenting time is like kicking stones
And who really wants to be twenty-three?
If I bemoan the mirrored truth
I would not trade its face away
For a return to brimming youth
Without words like stiff, sore or gray
I’d choose again what I’ve been given
I would not turn back any page
To be younger than forty-seven
Or, in other words; middle-age
About birthdays and getting old
How I just can’t remember quite
What I have or have not been told
I bet you think this is the day
I’ll celebrate in sad lament
But all that I can think to say
Is, ‘I am middle-age content’
I don’t mind swift years slipping by
As youth slips farther, far away
I don’t miss dream-stars in my eye
Lost in some by-gone yesterday
I quite enjoy my aching bones
I’ve earned them, wouldn’t you agree?
Lamenting time is like kicking stones
And who really wants to be twenty-three?
If I bemoan the mirrored truth
I would not trade its face away
For a return to brimming youth
Without words like stiff, sore or gray
I’d choose again what I’ve been given
I would not turn back any page
To be younger than forty-seven
Or, in other words; middle-age
Oh, middle age, sweet blissful stage
Of teen-age knowledge trumping mine
And how I see mortality
A little flicker known as Time
But I am fully satisfied
To embrace wrinkles, fresh and new
And I am not so foolish
As to wish that I was twenty-two…
No, I’m not crazy
Or losing my mind
To middle-age insanity
But if you believe this
To middle-age insanity
But if you believe this
May I be so kind
As to suggest
As to suggest
That you might be?
© Janet Martin
p.s. This is all in silly fun. I wrote this poem 2 years ago. I don't feel insane, yet I don't mind my age at all!
© Janet Martin
p.s. This is all in silly fun. I wrote this poem 2 years ago. I don't feel insane, yet I don't mind my age at all!
Cute piece, Janet. I have ten years on you (maybe a little more with the exchange rate) and I don't worry about aging anymore. Either that, or it has totally slipped my mind!
ReplyDeleteHear! Hear! I feel the same way. Age is relative and for ONCE the exchange rate works in my favor;)
ReplyDeleteWalt, I miss you guys in the garden. I will return, I promise! I prefer to not simply 'post and run'. I know you understand.
thank-you for stopping on my porch today:)
Despite the tricky ending, I do believe this, and I don't think I'm losing my mind :-) Middle age is very, very good. I intend to stay there. Remember Katherine Hepburn in "On Golden Pond", how she says,"A middle-aged couple, like us"? :-)
ReplyDeleteSasha, I agree with you and even more so than when I wrote this a few years ago. I don't think I would trade experience for youth:) Like hubby said this morning...when birthdays stop, so does everything else! I truly believe there is a purpose to every season!
ReplyDeletep.s. I have not watched On Golden Pond since I am middle age. Now I know what to pick up and see sometime. I would relate to it in a different way now. thank-you. This poem was written all in good fun. Thank-you God, for birthdays!
ReplyDeleteJanet, is it your birthday today?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is! 47 today:)
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Janet! Many, many happy returns!
ReplyDeletep.s. I knew I spelled the name wrong: it's Katharine. I love her and Henry Fonda in that movie.
Thank-you:) I love both of those actors in almost everything I have seen them in. Aw, suddenly I'm in the mood for a good old black and white:)
ReplyDeleteCute! My aging poems are all tongue-in-cheek, too.
ReplyDeleteOr at least, mostly.
;)
Sue, I had to think of the poem you wrote last week! I like your wink at the end here.;) returned.
ReplyDelete