So many roads I have walked
That I sometimes forget the path.
I’ve been around for decades now.
I’m rather old, so do the math.
So many names and so many faces
I knew and loved have come and gone.
I learned long ago, to let them go
To cherish our time and then move on.

Yesterday’s in-jokes like hairdos
Have changed and been forgotten.
I am not the same kid today I was
Back when my hair looked like cotton.
I don’t run as fast as I once did;
I am not much into random chasing.
Much of the drive I had long ago
Is ever so slowly self-erasing.

I do recall leaping off my couch
To take the day by the throat.
These days, I rise rather noisily
Sounding like an aging old goat.
I have to carefully watch my diet
Because things no longer function
The way they used to back then,
At a former, youthful junction.

But oh the memories I do recall
Of lovely people and adventures.
Back when I was free of arthritis
And unplagued by any dentures.
I still try to be that person now,
But I am dancing much more seldom.
Instead of being on my roller skates
I am on eBay trying to sell them.

Why are babies aged by the month?
Oh Jimmy is 14 months
And Oh Sally is 22 months old now
And blah blah blah

And once we reach the terrible two's
Our ages are so important that we now broadcast them in half years.
How old are you Jimmy...Beaming, he declares "I'm 6 & 1/2 Yrs Old!"
How old are you Sally...Shyly smiling she boasts "I'm 7 & 1/2 Yrs Old!"

I think by the time I reached 9 yrs old,
I felt it was no longer cool to announce my age in half years
How old are you Jimmy...In a yodeling  & cracking voice he replies "I'm 14"
How old are you Sally...."I just turned 18"...Well hot **** your all growd up!

14 months and 22 months are still 1 year old in my book.
But the 14th month old crawls and the 22 month old walks
6-1/2 is still only six but when we're young we are always in a rush to be an adult.
And in our teenage years we become "know it all's", but not really.

Ever heard "Yeahs she's 10 going on 21 yrs old."
Next time you open your eyes she's off to college.
14 year old Boys dreaming of four spinnin' wheels
And now he's driving the baby home from the hospital.

Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters.
Time is free but you can never get it back.
So slow the hell down and enjoy your life, your wife, your girl friend, your boy friend or your significant other, your kids, your grand kids,  your family and your Friends!

The old man groans as he gets up,
Rising from the chair is a job.
He notices now he is getting older
His head is developing a bob.
Not quite Katharine Hepburn,
Not a nod as much as a bounce.
It’s not a palsy, more of a tic.
It’s not really that pronounced.

And stairs seem to be an enemy
They don’t match the cadence.
Between the risers and his feet
There just too much distance.
Or other times, they are too short
And rise up as an ugly surprise
Not coinciding with what he sees
With his own aging naked eyes.

The man complains about TV
How they are mumbling too much.
They seem to be whispering
Or using foreign words and such.
And when he turns the sound up
The action scenes hurt his ears.
A ***** trick to play on people
Who are a bit advanced in years.

The old man gets disgruntled
When people outside make noise
Like they are some kind of teenagers;
But they’re adults, not girls and boys.
Here it is ten o’clock at night
When decent people are asleep.
What kind of schedule is this
For decent people to have to keep?

What is he to make of the music
These young people like to play?
It has to be some kind of abuse
To use a guitar in that way.
In his day there was melody
And words you could understand.
The noise they make is like a collision
Between a dump truck and a sedan.

The old man grumbles in frustration
That things have not stayed the same.
He would write a letter to the President
If he could figure out who to blame.
But one thing sure, he always insists,
It didn’t use to be this way before.
Now a kind of anarchy seems to exist.

School
Seven
******
Hours
Of
Our
Lives,
Feels like we're tied
Up in a world
Full of people trying to
bring us down.
In four years I've watched
My best friends' smiles
Turn to frowns
Only to be replaced by
Red lines on skin,
Straight like the coke she snorts
Just to get high
And FEEL something
For a little while.

Graduation day is only months away
And i'm somewhere between:
"Oh I'm gonna miss all my classmates"
And
"I'll never gonna see your stupid faces ever again, halleluiah!"

Suffocating time
Clocks tick beyond infinity
Beyond our numbers

I used to look like a famous person,
And I swear I really still do.
I started out looking like Dagwood
And now I resemble Mister Magoo.
On a fairly regular basis
I had to shave my face
And gripe about it as I did; now
There are hairs all over the place.

Oh, I remember times quite well
I used to bend to pick up a coin.
Then quickly stand right up again.
Now it causes pain in my groin.

I’d stand before the mirror, I’d
Spend much time combing my hair.
It had to look lush and thick
Now it’s gone, so I no longer care.
Because my forehead has grown
Much longer than my tresses.
I no longer have to worry
About any tangled messes.

I used to be able to eat
Anything put before me
But now I have to watch
What I munch on carefully.
Some things bind me,
And stop all activity,
And some things make me
Take ***** trips frequently.

I’d ***** about this aging stuff
But I have learned not to whine
Because I am still around.
So, longevity is mine.
Some people ridicule me
Because I walk slowly
I tell them I hope they can walk
When they are as old as me.

The mirror reveals a face naked and bleak,
the sweatpants have holes and the T-shirt is frayed.
It'll be over in a couple of weeks.

The hours spent escaping to Twitter speak
to the test on the floor with a failing grade.
The mirror reveals a face naked and bleak.

The tissue rips across my salty cheek
while my transcript laughs at the mess that I've made.
It'll be over in a couple of weeks.

I'll go to class tired and return home weak;
won't even bother with the "good girl" charade.
The mirror reveals a face naked and bleak.

"It's fine, Dad. My predicament's not unique.
I'll get my diploma, and all this will fade.
It'll be over in a couple of weeks."

Yet perhaps this last piece of paper I seek
will only frame the path from which I've strayed.
The mirror reveals a face naked and bleak;
It'll be over in a couple of weeks.

Students set your course
Sail through these days with no remorse.
And fill your life with love and pleasure
Let your ambitions have no measure.

Oh joyful peers
Shed jovial tears
The time has come at last
To fly our pride, our generations mast

Hear your future, fate is calling
Find your friends, these walls are falling
Tread with passion, steadfast walking
May your past be the sound,
Of your feet upon the ground.