70

against the odds

I’ve made it to seventy, 

the proverbial three score-and-ten

it was old once, not anymore

it’s the new fifty I’m told

but why not thirty? only joking,

Anna says I’ve got to change

not give up on life like my mother

‘though she made it to eighty-four,

so I’ve bought a guitar

a left-handed Martin Dreadnought

all the way from Boise, Idaho

never had a proper ‘leftie’,

had to hold a ‘rightie’ upside down

I might grow a beard too

and buy a denim shirt

for old time sake

perhaps walk the Camino

try and find myself,

I don’t think I bother

chasing after younger women

surely after fifty years

she won’t get rid of me now,

a friend told me to 

‘embrace disgrace’

another advised me to

‘mind how you go

and go with your mind’

hopefully, I won’t embarrass 

the family too much

after all

I’ve lived the seventies once

how hard can it be 

a second time around?

*

© Graham R Sherwood 10/21