The sign at the
Supermarket
checkout proudly
said “new winners
every day”,
which is a much
better deal than
we all get at
the Life checkout.
Tag: old age
Payment due
Writing a
memoir is
a life’s work.
It has to
be earned
by the lines
of your face,
the wrinkles
of your hands,
the night fears
of your sleep,
the weariness
of your brain,
the failing of
your body,
and finished
just in time.
Survivor
Old age is
being dropped
into a jungle
by parachute
and trying
to survive
using only
your wits.
Look through any window
Whether I am
seven and
a half or
seventy
five, the I
who looks out
of my window
is the same I,
no matter how
he appears to
those looking in.
You must remember this
Sometimes I
meet someone
from my past
who tells me
something I didn’t
know about
a common friend,
or enemy,
or event,
that completely
alters my
memory of
that person
or history.
Are all of
my memories
fungible?
Vanishing perspective
Once upon a
time I used to
say “Oh, if only
I was twenty
years younger”.
Now, suddenly
it seems, I
have to say
”Oh, if only
I was fifty
years younger.”
In the old days
Oh, those old
university
lecturers
of mine. How
ancient
they were, fossils
lecturing
about fossils.
Why they must
have been at
least forty
years old, some
even fifty!
Have you heard the one about…
The last stage
of old age
is where you
have run out
of people
who haven’t
heard all your
anecdotes.
A good day
However much
I complain about
the perils of
old age, and
I do, loudly,
it is better
than the
alternative,
much better.
Paradox
If I had known
then what I know
now, I would
have done some things
differently,
would have done
different
things. But then I
wouldn’t have known
the same things now
as I knew just
a moment ago.
