Life at Sixty Five Plus

What if I’m a little short of breath,
with a mouthful of missing teeth?
For, three score and five laps I’ve run,
without a puff or pant, around the Sun.

While the busy world nods indulgently,
I do just as I please quite really.
I get away with it most oftenly,
chuckling to myself quite innardly.

Prim and proper, is tyranny.
Conformance is pure baloney.
Some are shocked, some embarrassed,
but it’s never me that’s unduly bothered.

All days are weekends, no Monday blues.
No deadlines nor powerpoint slides.
Well, customers don’t rise to the bait?
I am not anymore losing my sleep over it.

At home, when served the dinner,
I slurp on the soup loud and clear,
I scratch myself where it itches,
And clear my throat when it feels.

The wife of many years takes on motherly hues.
Now she lets me have her…er…my ways.
Endless cups of coffee around,
books to read piled up in a mound.

No daughter coming home late,
nor a son sweating out for a break.
No screaming, swearing or sulking,
A reign of peace so becalming.

No two thoughts, when I go out in the evening –
a shirt could have a frayed collar and a button missing.
A cuff rolled up there and here a cuff rolled down,
a shocking green goes very well with a light brown.

At the bank the surly clerk is all polite
returning my check for signing it right.
That’s the friendly pharmacist calling out
after me for his payment no doubt.

I hand out a hundred rupee note
for a twelve –rupee ride to the Fort.
I get my ticket and change back without a fuss.
Someone gives up for me his seat on the bus.

I butt into conversation, no one objects.
Make statements on any subject, no one argues.
I choose to hear now and I hear not now.
So convenient, you can’t imagine how.

I wish perfect strangers in the park,
and accost with candies children in my walk.
I make friends with the pigeon on the ledge,
and watch the buds open up on the hedge.

It’s surely fun to be at sixty five plus, I found.
‘Gone soft in the head,’ they discount.
After living long years to pleasing them all,
doing just what I please, I’m having a ball.

End