Me At Ninety

When I am old, I shall wear plaid.

And I shall laugh too loud and in the wrong parts of jokes.

I shall wear caps that say things that are funny to me only

And when I take my cap off, little wisps of hair will come flying up

And I won’t care.

I shall walk down the street

Rattling my dentures

And the punk kids will see me coming and smile and say, “Hey old man”.

And I’ll smile and say, “Hey punk kid.”

You and I, my little old lady in purple,

Shall walk into our favorite place to eat breakfast

At 10 a.m.

And the waitress will smile and ask if we want to sit in our usual place

And we shall say yes.

And she will ask us if we want to order our usual breakfast

And we shall say yes.

But no one will know us at the mall.

After breakfast, we will shuffle home

Shuffling; not just because we have to

But because we want to.

And we shall garden

And wait for the mail

And complain about our aches

And talk about our kids

Who live three states away.

And at the end of the day, when we tuck each other in

For the tenuous night’s sleep

I won’t bother you

Because we’ve done all that.

I’ll just pull you close to me

Put your head on my chest

And whisper that I love you

My little old lady.

Eric Marley

2001

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