Perspective

June 4, 2024

“How old is old?”, she asked the little child,

And he looked up at her with his toothless smile.

“My brother’s pretty old”, he said with a grin,

“Next week he is going to turn ten!”

“How old is old?”, she asked the girl of fifteen

As she posed for a selfie, made up like a beauty queen.

“Oh, thirty!” she exclaimed without much of a care,

 “It's a long time away, I’m only halfway there.”

“How old is old?”, she asked the young man

Who was working on the engine of his VW van.

“I’d say around forty, that would be my guess.

Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.”

“How old is old?”, she asked the busy mom,

Who responded, “Fifty, maybe? Once the kids are gone.

I look forward to wrinkles and gray hair

If it means I can sit on the porch in my chair.”

“How old is old?”, she asked the retired gent,

As over the tomatoes in his garden he bent.

“Old?  Well I’m hoping for a few more good years

Before I have to lay down my garden shears.”

She thought of those responses and she gave a little sigh

For she knew the real answer was, “Ten years older than I.”