UNTIL I DIE

If I am old, it is because I was young.

If my muscles ache, it is because they were firm

If my eyes blur and strain, it is because they seen plenty

My skin is wrinkled

And annotated with lines and spots and rings

But only because I have walked beneath sunny skies

And bathed in the chilly salty sea

My fingers are gnarled and knobby

Because I held on real tight

Every time, even when it did not matter

My steps falter and my bones creak up the stairs

The same stairs now worn weary from years of my steps

I have grown and lost, filled to the brim

And burst

I have sulked, talked, worked and been shocked

I have laughed and cried, cursed and smiled

I have made my bed with flour and flowers

The flour baked me a pastry, crunchy and sublime

The flowers

Roses, pretty and prickly with thorns that tore

At my skin as I made sweet love under the handsomest stars

 

I have lived

It matters not how long I have walked the earth

It doesn’t

It oughtn’t

It won’t

But

It matters how long a second lasts that I have lived

It does

It ought

It will

 

It is folly to measure time by the weight of it

Because as the sands fritter down, vacuum in their wake

Eons and centuries skitter through, and to their heels take

The beauty of the moment

Is the true measure of time

The beauty of now

The pleasure of the present second

Pleasure that stretches its tick to last a whole day

 

Let me live, truly live for just that second

One second that will deny me fear of the future

One second that will not worry for the long gone past

Let me live for just that second

Let me live as best as I can

As long as I will

 

Let me live until I die

 

THIS IS THE 50TH POST ON ‘WORDS ARE WORK’ AND MY GRATITUDE TO YOU, MY BEAUTIFUL, TOLERANT AND RELENTLESS READERS COULDN’T POSSIBLY BE MEASURED. ONCE UPON A TIME, I WOULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED…I MEAN, WHO WOULDA THOUGHT?!!

I CHOOSE TO CELEBRATE THIS 50TH POST WITH A TRIBUTE TO ALL MEMBERS OF OUR SOCIETY AGED 50+…

with all the moons and skies you have lived through, my prayer for you is that the labors of your youth may not be in vain. Amen.

 

Mention me on twitter @ojukwu_martin