O let my Old Age be Mellow

_________________________ Childhood being a period of innocence, be by and large quite blissful. The old age also can be quite so if it is truly treated as a second childhood. Life and death are equal journeys as death happens right from birth— why this sonnet is equally divided in two sestets followed by a couplet. ___________________ Thou art to soul as sleep is to my strife, The cheeks when look rosy nor either full, Lips red, nor knees so supple of a mule, The flesh when falters, wrinkles rear up rife, In feeble frame and grey forgetful brain, And mental will that far from firm can feign. So, come, O Death, like lingering night's sleep, Come to me cooling smooth like a winter, Or sallow, smooth like a softened summer, For a soul that has lived full, well and deep, To whom life seems like a day's work well done, A night's rest well-earned to face morrow's sun. In glimmering sunset's withering glow, O let my old age be somewhat mellow. ___________________________________________ Sonnet |03.01.2008| life, death, old age