AGEING

 As I become aged, and my memories lessen, there’s the tendency to write about things that many people don’t wish to hear….the very experience of ageing. Ageing, being aged, is like being chased by a wild animal that's biting at your heals, while escape involves jumping off a cliff. The reality is not at all pleasant. It’s a story not often written, and when it is written about is embellished, made to sound heroic. It isn’t. It’s painful, it’s lonely, and it’s a time of desperation. Understandably no one wishes to read or learn this story, but it needs to be told if only to impress the importance of pursuing a life well spent. And so I write…

LIKE A BOOK

Life, 

it may be said , 

like a book,

has a beginning and 

an ending, 

and if we,

for the moment, 

stop to consider that 

we are simply a part of a story, then

as one can clearly see, the story,

never ending, but our story,

your’s and mine,

ending, but which chapter

no one knows, 

until the time we face disaster, 

and simply, disappear …..

in words too few, 

some would say, 

and too soon, 

to appreciate the ending.

Ernest Andrew Somers 

2024