Page 4 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Three

At twenty have it figured out?—
Miss the fruits of decades of doubt;
Draw those conclusions at eighty:
Chances are they’ll be more weighty.

Youth must be served, the saying goes—
But stops at what an elder knows:
If what it wants the old won’t serve,
To take it youth may have the nerve.

Beware! Your wrinkles will display
What raisins and old shoes betray:
Are you smiling ever sweeter
Or shriveling by the heater?

Old enough to be their father,
I’ve no doubt that I would rather—
After seeing their bald pates gleam—
Have a full head of hair than steam.

Why in your dotage or your prime
Deny you’re running out of time?
Is it not knowing just how much
Is left that puts you out of touch?

What we tell our parents to do:
Go ahead, folks—try something new!
That’s fine if they can cross the floor
From the closed to the open door.