Sorry to inundate you. Couldn't help myself!
{Yall's fault for encouraging me.:) Thank you so much for your warm and wise comments. Don't mean to punish you for being kind.}
I am 80? You talkin to me?
Tellin me I am 80 years old?
Call that thing a calendar?
Check the Mayan deal caused all that fuss.
Y2K freaked out Father Time, or what?
Late 60's, people start writing you off.
Turn 30, Big 4-0 calls for a bash.
AARP smiling to 50, but 60, you hit.
Not a celebrity, haven’t made your mark,
70 is a tombstone waiting. Over 70
foil for stand-up comedians long on tacky
and short on imagination. Little old lady
in tennis shoes meet hunkered over geezer
holding up traffic in Miami or Phoenix.
Fall and can’t get up, hahaha. Hysterical
quaver followed by the walking farts.
Hair’s left is a grizzled disaster, face
a hundred miles of sorry road. Glazed
eyes and a basset hound scowl.
Fear is part. Maybe all. I’d be scared
if I could bring myself to believe
I will be needled with sleeve tattoos
that repeat my supposed age. Ain’ into
tattoos, y’know? May be a generation
thi--. . .whoa! Little rose might be cool. . .
wrapped ‘round a cherry-red heart?
(c) Phyllis Jean Green
2013
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Reviews of "Rumor January 19, two Thousand Thirteen"
ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!! YOU ARE A WONDERFUL POET AND I ALWAYS ENJOY YOUR WORK. A BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU AND...IS IT 80?!!! GO ON...I DONT BELIEVE IT! THANKS FOR SHARING. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH....
Cute. Touching. The casual is always wedded to the poetic, and yes, there is the fear. The fear of being reduced. Youth and old age are fetish-like images and everything gets reduced to that. And yet the life in one is so different, so far from those schemes, those narrow and almighty, oversimplified formulae. "Little red rose... wrapped 'round cherry-red heart" is glorious, graphic, sharp and to the point.
I ain't into tattoos, neither. Having turned seven oh at the time the Mayan world ended, and I almost bought the farm, I guess I can look forward to the end during this decade, and then all the slings and arrows you're talking about in the decade to follow. And if I make the decade after that like my uncle (93), I may be able to look forward to an inoperative prostate and all that entails. Or if I make it into the next decade like another uncle (101) I can look forward to soft food and a pleasant attitude until it hits me.
Until that time, I'm getting it up and going to chase all the tail I can until the rightful end.
I am glad I trust my own judgement about time! I heard a saying years ago, if you did not know how old you are, how old would you be? I am still a youngster!!!...hahaha..Enjoyed reading this!
Marcia, I fear it is true. Keep subtracting 1933 from 2013 and getting the same answer. Think I should look into having a new birth certificate made? Where does time GO?
'Least I don't have to worry about a second childhood. Never left the first!
....sigh....
Reviewed by Marcia Duning (Reader)
Reviewed on January 6, 2013
Not a rumor. Your birthday is on the 19. Not so sure about 80 part and we are friends!
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Yankee Doodle Daddy is a historical Appalachian Family Saga. The story follows a mother's reckoning as she struggles to survive and keep her four daughters alive.
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JOYCE * HIS INSPIRATIONS
you are ageless!
john
Until that time, I'm getting it up and going to chase all the tail I can until the rightful end.
Ron
Teresa
*Phyllis* keep up
sharing your poetry
Lady Vivian
Blessings,
Christine
'Least I don't have to worry about a second childhood. Never left the first!
....sigh....
budd
Cheers,
Dan