"Poems: People Aging Differently"

“FIVE AFTER 65” 
(Plain / The Chills / Breakin' Down Old Car / Clear View, Rearview / Beatlesless World)

Five new poems, about five different people, contrasting how we age differently depending on PERSPECTIVE.  Wrote these since turning 65 last week.


Looking behind him

Now that he’s old

Life’s a flash in the pan, a cloud drifting by,

A tale that’s been told

He dabbled in business

While doubled in pain

Now 50 years later

Where are the journals

Scribbled in vain?

Presuming life’s answers…plain
They're yellowed
and faded
and give him eyestrain

/ She’s watching TV, entertained by ghosts

All of them dead yet speaking still

And then, the commercials where living ones boast

Of tomorrow, forgetting the “If the Lord Wills”

And that’s what gives me the chills

/ And

Now I am a senior

And I feel my body fadin’

I’m a breakin’ down old car

Just a-lookin’ for my trade-in

And yes, the one God has for me

it’s surely worth the waitin’

That’s good, because, like that old car

I feel this body achin’

/ You’ve got a CLEAR VIEW

In the rear view mirror

The road up ahead

Is even clearer

You’ve got a CLEAR VIEW

Though the future’s nearer

A CLEAR, CLEAR VIEW

In the rear view mirror
Look ahead! Look beyond!
Forget about your roots 
pretty soon you'll be gone
Watch the road, not the past!
Look ahead and try to figure out
where you'll stop at last

/ Oldschool church

With graves in back

Bulldozed down.  Razed flat. That’s that.

Replaced by fakes

With the Truth they hide

It’s like all the graves have been moved inside

‘Cause she just wants to live

In a Beatlesless World

They won’t contend

They’ll easily bend

They’re ready to float with the tide.

Kanye? Chick-Fil-A?

Christianity Today?

Jellyfish, make a wish

Wait there’s no Wishbone

Tell her what THE SCRIPTURES say

Words of ours have little sway

Though they are our own, yeah

Though they are our own
(But this world's not our Home)

‘Cause she just wants to live

In a Beatlesless World

They won’t contend

They’ll easily bend

They’re ready to float with the tide.
and she's going along for the ride