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Thomas Cole The Journey of Life (1842) National Gallery GERIATRICAOh, how they tell you, There are reasons to be cheerful, And oh, how you reply “I know”. Yet windswept youth has a smiling agenda The ocean which they sail upon, Still unpolluted by life’s detritus, Has distant horizons and lucky landfalls Over which I have already walked. But we in the long shadow Of our greyness will nod and smile Stumbling sages in the pot-holed landscape Of the inevitable country, Geriatrica. For here the past is long, The future short. Here we face the pending mystery, Reality’s cajoling fingers caress our necks, Like anonymous lovers Drawing us towards the great unknown. What lies in wait there? A new sunrise? A re-union With loved ones gone before? Will there be another childhood? Are these the reasons to be cheerful, Or palliatives to this arthritic fading being Were heartbeats falter and Exhausted muscles seize the dregs Of energy and wrap the mind in sackcloth. Oh, lighten up old man, they say, Never throw away the dimming spark Of life until the gift expires. |
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GERIATRICA
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