Ode to 40 (or 50, or 60…)
by Jinny Batterson
(This piece was written as I and some of my “boomer” friends were beginning to realize that we were no longer young adults. My apologies to Ludwig van B. (who, were he still alive, would be turning 245 on December 16, 2015) for appropriating his tune.)
Hair is graying, folks are saying:
“Eat more fiber, eat less fat.”
Clothes are shrinking, waistline sinking–
Liver spots, it’s come to that!
Ever faster, time marches onward,
Though we vainly shout out, “Halt!”
And the bad world situation,
Young ones know, is all our fault.
We have reached the middle passage,
We have reached the prime of life.
We have known some joys and sorrows–
Years have brought both peace and strife.
We are learning, “Live in the moment,”
Sensitive and powerful, too.
Baby boomers struggling onward,
Spotlighted in all we do.
As we contemplate the future,
We are brave, and we are cowed:
Gadgets new and disappearing,
Google Glass, computing cloud.
Now the way is often foggy,
As old icons fade or die.
We have reached the age of “maybe,”
Halfway between earth and sky.
Jinny's Occasional Poems 