Page 2 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Three

Sense and Senescence

Kicked out of the sensorium—
Deaf in an auditorium,
Blind before beauty and grace—
The old flee to a safer place.

Youth lingering in life too late
Cannot coerce old age to wait:
Nothing prevents puerility
Overlapping senility.

I’ll soon be just a photograph;
But which one? Will I frown or laugh?
Candid shot or posed? Seem to thrive?
Or in that flash not look alive?

Jukebox brain won’t take my quarter,
Keeps on playing tunes much shorter
Than any hit for which I yearn,
And on its playlist yet discern.

I wouldn’t want to be the guy
Who says if you will live or die;
If you are doing that for me,
You’re not a guy I’d want to be.