I startle myself.

Who is this wrinkled, sagging old fool?

I count crevasses on wind and sun-damaged skin

and again realize-

Time plays dirty tricks, rotten and cruel.

Most days my teeth and joints badly ache

and I struggle hard just to see and hear.

Plus, I get dizzy spells and forget simple things,,

annoying hell out of anyone near.

But the big mystery, you see, is what happened to me

while I was living my life away.

or at least my senile mind thinks that way.

In my dreams I can run like the wind and win fights,

have marathon sex and am terribly smart

Then I painfully awake, realizing it all wasn’t real,

so I struggle to sit up, letting the first frequent fart.

Oh, life, you sadist, I know whereof is thy sting,

being the butt of your cosmic joke.

Finally wise enough to appreciate things,

but my weak fires now too feeble to stoke.

Hot young women showing skin everywhere-

cool sports cars and techno toys abound.

Yet they might as well be just more of my dreams

for the remaining time I’m still around.

I hope soon in sleep my final release will come,

and my still youthful spirit will fly away.

Until that time, however, I will try to avoid

looking into that damned mirror each day.