Tag Archives: aging

RETIREMENT

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

It feels like the waiting has ended.

I no longer know where time goes.

Wherever it is, it has left me behind

as I follow paths no longer known.

Forgotten perhaps, known paths and I,

or should I say me?

A ghost to those I no longer see.

Such freedom is golden, as is my age.

I hammer another nail into the boards

building an enduring new stage

for the play to go on.

A new script takes shape 

on pages of print awaiting new actors

to bring me alive as I sprint

to unknown territory

devoid of all glory.

Welcome, indeed, a new stage for my play.

What better way to spend each new day.

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TOO OLD TO SEE

Angelo Annarino, Sr. with his youngest grandchild, Johnny.

Too late I rise to see the dawn

of new days when peace is praised;

when all may love, and loving live;

favored by children who long to give

new ways of seeing, doing and being.

We aged can only live on faith

that youth will find a way through

the messy world we leave behind,

and accept our fervent hope

that one day they may forgive

those who refused to awaken

to what the world could be

if it had embraced love

and respect for all humanity.

Days grow shorter, faster,

sooner to see sleep arrive

and dreams of years of work gone by

to create the space for family to thrive.

Touch remains with soft words of praise

for children and grandchildren

who have learned my ways.

I am satisfied.

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AGING

Photo by Nashua Volquez-Young on Pexels.com

A single year’s length

has deprived me of the strength

seventy-four years built.

Like sand it has been seeping 

from muscles knotted and bemused

by excess effort and misuse

and a lifetime of abuse

by Amazonian female dreams

of living by independent means.

Of course, all is not lost 

and I need not count the cost

since enough strength remains

to tend what I must

before this lovely body

bites the dust.

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HAIKU

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

TAKE A HIKE

I did not retire

only to rehire myself.

Take a hike instead.

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BY THE GATE

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

I stand by the gate and yearn.

I did not build the fence.

It serves a purpose, I suppose.

I did not build the gate.

There was no intent to close

the being standing here inside.

I stand by the gate and yearn,

by the gate which keeps you away.

It has no lock. 

You could lift the latch.

But, you simply wave and walk by.

I stand by the gate and yearn.

For what, I no longer know.

It was not always so.

There was a time 

when you would have leapt over

the fence, the gate, any enclosure.

Now, you walk by and wave.

I remember now. I yearn

for you.

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HOAR FROST

Photo by photos_by_ginny on Pexels.com

Frost rises before dawn and flees the garden bed

before Sun can catch her in her splendor.

Faster than squirrels she runs across fields and rivulets

leaving white crystals trailing behind in a momentary glittery shine

across the folds of orange and gold left by falling leaves

that shimmer in the slight breeze of Sun-warmed air

to prepare us for the day to come.

Each morning I rise and try to catch Frost by surprise,

but she is too slick, too quick; and I, now too slow.

She laughs in my face with icy breath until I am so cold

my limbs tremble as the those of the trees shedding leaves.

I shed my earthly dreams as frost awakens me to journeys ahead.

Frost is a fleeting thing, reminding me that I am, too.

Frost has turned my hair white; it seems, overnight.

And so I say, “Good morning, Frost.”

And she replies, “Good morning, you.”

Such days are numbered, and too few.

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ANGELA’S CHILD

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

How can time get away

when it stands still so much of the day,

encased in memories of yesterdays?

I know I should be doing more

but what more seems 

too tentative to explore.

Batteries charge in the sun as do I,

walking block after block

avoiding clouds’ shadows

avoiding stepping on cracks

lest I break my mother’s back.

I often wonder if she knows

I still follow her path

and watch her back

to find my way;

and, if she 

still watches me.

If so, I know, she is the wind

pushing me along

and keeping me strong.

The wind washes clear

the fog of discontent

and lackadaisical malaise

that seems to come 

with greater age.

I am my mother’s child

wily, wise and wild

still able to get up

off the couch 

and run, and run, and run.

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THE BOOK OF LIFE

Photo by Askar Abayev on Pexels.com

Live long enough

and enough becomes more

then was once imaginable.

It is not resignation

to the seemingly insoluble

problems making the young

passionate and high strung;

nor to youth’s perception

that old people are stuck

in the past, and even the mud.

No, the old are simply elated

that problems which once made them 

passionate and high strung

have been overcome.

The old simply have

more hope for

and less fear of

the future the young will live

with greater energy;

a future which the old may not live to see.

Reluctance to become irate,

wave arms and raise voices of dismay,

may simply be the wisdom to see

no problem is without a solution.

It just my not come for a few more days.

Truly, the old and the young

are writing the same story.

They are merely on different pages

in the book of life.

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Ruby Slipper Hydrangea

Photo 8/7/22

Innocent white petals first unfold.

Pink hearts softly begin to show.

Soon her petals redden in the sun.

All innocence comes undone.

She begins to slowly grow old.

Autumn stealthily takes its toll.

Finally, she turns russet and gold.

Such changes offer chance to survive

The winter of a life which thrived.

Lesson from the garden to live by.

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THINNING OUT LIFE

Photo by Edu Carvalho on Pexels.com

My hair is so thin

and so fine,

so unstructured

by aging design.

A blanket woven 

from my hair

could not warm

a body cold

from aging blood

flowing so slow.

All of a piece

are these changes

noted and coded

to bring the message

that life is also this:

so fine and 

unstructured

except in my mind.

I brush my hair and

watch it fall

loosened from its frame

like my muscle and bone.

The stories it tells

as it catches the light

separating so many colors

into memory’s delight.

If this be aging

I welcome it close.

Aging brings wisdom

to bear each loss

before the final

loss comes and I

am finally bald.

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