Richard Colbert Poet Free verse

Old Man, Too

each year 
goes by faster than the last
i have a greater sense 
of urgency
to see, hear, touch, feel
what i’m passing through
i want to
pump the brakes, 
slow down
but do i want to
let all i sped 
through
and by ….. catch up
		
i can’t tell you 
where 
or when 
or even if, 
a mid-life crises happened 
although i suspect it did
i must have 
gotten up to get
a beer and 
missed halftime

i am not afraid of aging 
or getting old
truth be told, 
i never expected 
to live this long
and, senior discounts 
are pretty cool			

i may have 
more or less than a 
decade left,
statistically speaking ..
i wonder if those
flickering lights
i see sometimes 
are really cataracts

how is it
that 5 foot 6
was 5-8, 
40 years ago
and is now 5 foot 3
and the hair on my head
is gone 
yet the hair
in my ears
needs trimming weekly

would i,
could i
do anything different 
to change my chances,
for a different outcome,
the outcome

if i didn’t recognize 
what i was 
missing before,
everything i dismissed 
as unimportant, 
misplaced,
irrelevant; 

when i said no to
what i didn’t know,
to think i’d see it now,
am i as arrogant today 
as in my youth			

my grandfather
would tell me “you can’t 
teach an old dog …” anything

so it would seem
with an 
old man, too

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Kim Rodrigues December 28, 2021 at 4:31 PM Moving toward that understanding. Richard Colbert December 31, 2021 at 4:41 AM At times I think of a lyric in the Paul Simon song Old Friends, "How terribly strange to be 70" and remember not having a clue of what that meant in my younger daze. Thanks for commenting, Kim. Rich

L Milton Hankins December 14, 2021 at 6:37 PM I loved your poem, Richard, and I could relate to every word of it. Are you sure you weren't writing this to me??? Richard Colbert December 14, 2021 at 7:59 PM It seems the old I get the more I reflect. Thanks for the kind words. Richard