On Old Age

(John chapter 21 verse 18) verily
verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou
girdest thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldest but
when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and
another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not)
but Peter just laughs.
   Rabbi says Peter why carry on about old age
guess what you are to die young.
   A young man is afraid his life can be
taken away what are you going to take from an oldster his
life a bird in a tree.
   A young man is afraid he can be put in chains
an old man is free even thrown in a pit his freedom
a bird in the sky.

II
(Old age is coming) no wish to go on lying (old age
is coming) no taste for boasting old age has arrived
and you are what you are (sick of pretending).
  Old age comes like rain from the sky
  To wash away dust.

III
But some keep bending their backs up to the last
pail in hand until they die aghast

they draw and draw and never know from what
they pour and such and never know for what

year chases year and half their life is over
is old age coming no old age passes them over.

they start to boast of who and what they’ve been
what they have done and what they’ve seen

they hold on to their things (but they rot and rust)
year chases year till the cup it runneth ov’r

they lie in coffin candles burn and life is over
and old age comes and goes and passes them over

IV
If only my heart continued to see
I don’t care about the eyes.

V
Another good thing about old age that your back
is stiff.
   For an old man it’s hard to bend hard to flex for
an old man he has to stay his ground whether he likes it or not.
   The penny remains on the ground humility unexpressed
(shoelaces untied but that hardly matters).

VI
God let me live to old age.


Translated by Ieva Lesinska