Midlife Musings

 

Neil Harding McAlister

 

 

 

Now that we’re middle aged,     

We stop for breath and look around.                  

What glorious deeds our lives have crowned      

By which we shall be gauged?                                                               

Have we yet reached our goals?

The door is closing, year by year.

Sometimes we’re panicked by that fear

While time relentless rolls.

 

Unruly waistlines spread.

With shock we find such banal cares

Have crept up on us, unawares --

We’re more than halfway dead!

They mock us as they flee,

Those fading dreams of vanished youth!

The time has come to face hard truth:

They may not ever be.

 

What do we call “success?”                               

Along the way our plans have changed,

Priorities we’ve rearranged.

Old longings we suppress.

Ahead we fear to stare.

Will Father Time, the patient one,

Forgive us for work left undone?                       

Or will he even care?

 

No need to feel depressed:

Life makes us wise as we grow old.

By those who slave for power or gold

No longer we’re impressed.

Could we, as youths, have known         

The sights we’d see, the things we’d do,

Our joys, and loves, and children too,

When we to men were grown?

 

As hard-fought seasons mount,

Who tells us if we’ve lost or won?

Through toil, reflection, pain and fun

We’ll make each new day count,

And savor every breath!

Put down boys’ dreams and be a man

“Til ageing steps no longer can

Outpace advancing Death! 

 

 

 

        

 

 

© 2004, Neil Harding McAlister