Old Men

I’ve been here and there in the years I’ve had. Some of the “here” have been really good and even some of the “there” was okay. But not all of the time. Much of the time I’ve had was spent racing around, what I used to call “Chasing the Dragon.” I should have been wiser and walked a bit more slowly through life. Too late now. Am I wiser? Hmmm. Even if I was a bit wiser, would anyone notice? Or would it be humoring the old man? Hah! That reminded me of a poem by my friend Ted King, a stalwart inhabitant of Minnesota’s cold clime and a citizen of Mary Tyler Moore’s happy place, Minneapolis. Without further BS, I bring you Ted’s poem (with his permission):

Old Men

Went for coffee today at the local shop.
Guess who was there,
at two o’clock in the afternoon.
Old men.
Old men like me.

Old men don’t order a double mocha iced latte fizz.
They order coffee. Plain and simple.
Thank you. Here’s a nice tip.
Next!
Old men are easy to please.

Old men like to take their time.
Partly because they can and partly because they have to.
Their hearts and backs are broken from years of trying too hard.
They need time to heal.
Even though they know they’ll never heal.
Nobody heals. You just get used to it.

Old men also need time
to re-train their brains.
So many years of thinking and worrying
about things they now know were not as important
as they were led to believe.

And they know it’s finally OK
to sheathe their swords.
There’s nothing so relaxing as a quiet libido.
But though they’re not the athletes they once were,
old men still have ways of making you smile.

Most importantly,
old men have the time and space to
actually know a few important things.
Finally.

They don’t talk about them, though.
Not much anyway.
Old men know
there are some things you just can’t know
until you’re an old man.
Like me.

Poem by Ted King, from his book, “Fresh Dirt” Art by Tom Cassidy