Sunday, August 26, 2012

Mid-Life Crisis


CARRY ON TUESDAY
asks us to use the translation, in blue, from Dante's Inferno

MID-LIFE CRISIS

Midway in life's journey we get a nasty jolt.
Suddenly it hits us like a thunder bolt.
We' re no longer youthful; we're on the downward slope;
Now's the time for stock-taking, not for living-on hope.
All our youthful dreaming has simply come to nought;
We didn't 'make it by thirty'....that's a solemn thought.
The fifth decade is hard to bear....well, it was hard for me.
Without youth's happy thoughtlessness or age's gravity.
Fifty is a tricky age, we carry society's load,
And we're not yet sweet old ladies folk will help across the road!
I hated being fifty! It was such a sexless age!
Youth is gold, old age is mauve but fifty's sort of beige.
As a young girl I was carefree, and today I feel the same;
Now I'm eighty life, once more, is just a simple game.
No mortgages, no dependants, and no hopeless expectations;
This 'second childhood' is great fun despite its limitations.
Midway in life's journey life can seem rather glum,
But hang on and keep smiling.
Better days are sure to come!
*
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THE DRAGONFLY

If I should be a dragonfly,
Knowing I were going to die,
What would my view of Heaven be
As I existed flutteringly?
Would I think of a cloudless blue
With nothing else for me to do
But skim the flowers and the trees
Floating on a personal breeze?
Would I expect to skim and soar
For evermore, for evermore?
The only certainty would be this......
An eternity of endless bliss
Was waiting for me in the sky!
Oh foolish, foolish dragonfly!
*


4 comments:

Gemma Wiseman said...

Love the gold, the mauve and the sort of beige colours for our age stages! Very clever! A great poem of "bear with it, there's more hope to come"!
And loved the whimsical romance of the second poem!

Daydreamertoo said...

My teen has been telling me for the past 9 years, I'm an old lady. I was 50 when she first said it. lol
I loved this. 50's are a middle age. Not young anymore and yet, not old aged either. I'm 59 now.
Loved both of these. The Dragonfly is beautiful.

Tigerbrite said...

Love both these :)

Anonymous said...

I think it's harder being a female growing older. I enjoyed both these poems and the way you look/ question the world :)