Living the Aging Life

We used to think it was OK

to own another man.

Our progress can be halting,

still, we do the best we can.

We’ll have three days of summer.

Then, I’m sorry to report,

the weather will be changing and

the days start getting short.

My lilac tree gets weaker,

sicker, frailer year by year.

I’m afraid that one day, I’ll look out –

and she’ll just disappear.

Faith and hope still mean a lot.

In fact, they may be all we’ve got.

My telephone’s not mine alone.

My phone’s self-activated.

It does just what it wants to do.

My input’s not awaited.

It calls at random through the night.

It rings and buzzes left and right.

But when I tell it what to do,

it puckers up and sulks a few.

It burps and stalls and wants a PIN

and then it hunkers down again.

The phone does what it wants to do

which might not match with me and you.

Some toddlers learn the phoning skill…

but my phone does its thing at will.

My garden’s growing in the rain.

Each bloom’s an appetizer

that hints at what I’m soon to see

from all that fertilizer.

I love One-legged pickle-ball!

I hop around a lot.

When you can’t run

on two strong legs,

it shows ‘em what you’ve got!

My cats and I live in a house

that’s big enough for three.

We live alone in that big house.

The two old cats.

And me.

Today I wish you rainbows.

I wish you yellow balloons.

I wish you circus dancers,

with a band of lilting tunes.

I wish you bursts of laughter

that swoosh all your breath away.

I wish you easy choices

that smooth out the bumps today.

Ev’ry morn brings promise

of a bright and better day.

And in each day’s bright promise

we find strength to guide our way.