Gerontology

Sitting in the car
Mulling over near and far,
There, and what is definitely here:

Youth cannot envision eighty-two.  
Doctors too. They cannot ‘feel’ eighty-two:
Your doctor, my…
So many symptoms pass them by.
‘Tis pity, for ‘tis I who suffer,
I, who faced with ebb and tide analyze,
Use the self through trial and t-error;
I, who ponder, for I must,
There being no one I dare trust -
(Except for deity unseen
Who has the charge of body mine)

Geron (Greek for old man) –ology (the study of)
Is what is needed, given that
The young can never feel out
Time’s dealing out.

Apprentice doctors in their prime
Should get to know the facts of age,
The pages, wages of real life,
For theory is theory
Until you get there by yourself.

With visits by appointment only,
This is the die that disappoints
(The lie that also disappoints) when I,
Life’s force in slow decline
Am looking for relief.

Gerontology 10.18.2016
Circling Round Aging;
Arlene Corwin