Fifty

Fifty?

How did that happen

To me?

Yesterday

I was twenty two

But today

I am not twenty three?

My mind is as

Curious as

A teenager’s ever was.

My heart leaps

As nimbly as I did

Over streams and

Branches when I was nine.

Fifty?

I cannot imagine

Or fathom

Or conceive…

Fifty pennies is not so much.

Fifty hours a mere work week

For some.

Fifty dollars

Doesn’t go far anymore.

Fifty watts isn’t even

Enough for a light bulb

For some.

As an IQ it means

I would be worse than dumb.

Fifty?

How can it be?

A half of a century.

I have not been alive

Long enough to understand

Being fifty.

But here I am

With fifty candles on my cake

And friends around this age,

A husband who will soon

Follow suit

And children so old

That if I claim them

It must be true .

Fifty?

How can that be?

Kathy Adams