Humor May Be the Best Medicine When It Comes to Aging
We are all going to age, despite what the fashion magazines and health food stores may try to tell you. We can embrace our final years and enjoy the time we will spend in them or we can fight it. I like the idea of embracing being older and seeing an unknown path ahead of us. This poem captures the humor of aging and can be helpful for those of us with aging parents or grandparents.
I CAN’T REMEMBER
Just a line to say I’m living
That I’m not among the dead
Though I’m getting more forgetful
And mixed up in my head.
I got used to arthritis,
To my dentures I’m resigned,
I can manage my bifocals,
But God, I miss my mind.
For sometimes I can’t remember,
When I stand at the foot of the stair
If I must go up for something
Or have I just come down from there?
And before the frig so often,
My poor mind is filled with doubt,
Have I just put the food away,
Or have I come to take some out?
And there’s the time when it is dark
With my nightcap on my head,
I don’t know if I’m retiring,
Or just getting out of bed.
If it’s my turn to write you,
There’s no need for getting sore,
I may think that I have written
And don’t want to be a bore.
Remember that I love you
And wish that you were near.
Now it is nearly mail time,
So I must say goodbye dear.
There I stand beside the mailbox,
With face so very red,
Instead of mailing you my letter,
I had opened it instead.
–Author Unknown