On Middle Age

by Susan Cameron

It's not my turn to post, but let me stick this in here. Every year, Jane Glenn Haas of the Orange County Register runs The International Longevity Light Verse Contest, and I decided to throw in an entry this year for the first time. If you'd like to have fun with it, here are the rules:

• The topic is aging/longevity/life after 50. Keep entries short. Homeric epics will be tossed.

• Do not use the word "geezer."

• Do not rhyme Viagra with Niagara.

• Do not look in the mirror and see your mother, grandmother, or great-aunt.

You must be 50 or over to enter. Put your name, address, telephone number, email address and age on the entry. Enter as often as you like. Deadline is August 21; winning poems are published in the Orange County Register in September. Email to janeghaas@gmail.com (Verses entries only). Send snail mail to Verses, Jane Glenn Haas, the Orange County Register, P.O. Box 11626, Santa Ana, CA 92711.

Okay, so here's my entry:

ON MIDDLE AGE

We need to stop the whining and the narcissistic pining
for the bodies we had once and won't again --
the price we pay for living is the youth that we've been giving
day-by-day to tax-man Time since Time began.
Aging's not a tragedy; it's only nature's strategy,
so suck it up, 'cause life is still okay --
I'm still here and so are you; we know some day that won't be true,
so smile, old fool -- go out and seize the day!

Susan Cameron, copyright 2009


Have a good one, everybody!