A Poem; Ode to becoming Aged by Jim Jenkins

Ode to Becoming Aged

I never used to think about the day when I would get older.
I didn’t worry if the weather was going to be hot or it was colder.
I listened to music on the radio, but never watched the news.
My time became so precious, I had to organize and choose,
between all the things I wanted to do; but rarely had the time,
as I tried hard to get all of it done; while I was in my prime.
I raised my kids, worked my job and then I could retire.
There’s so much life for you to live before that you expire.
The years flew by so quickly and my age began to show.
I looked around one day and wondered: where did they all go?

My skin had developed wrinkles and I had lost my full head of hair.
People had to start helping me when I got up from a chair.
I had lost the spring I had in my step, so now I could only creep.
I couldn’t get up if I fell down; I couldn’t go to or stay asleep.
I recalled when I was younger, I liked things that gave me quite a thrill,
but as I aged and wanted to have sex, I needed a little blue pill.
All the trips to the bathroom became an experience for me,
as my prostrate swelled and got so big that I could hardly pee.
I took Rolaids for my upset stomach; to see I had to use drops;
to hear; I played my TV so loud, neighbors complained to cops.

It’s hell to get old and suffer with all the afflictions that it brings.
People say I’m grouchy and I can’t remember things.
I raise hell with everybody, even kids walking across my yard.
The little things that I did easily before, they all became so hard.
Although sometimes my memory failed me and my wits were not as keen,
I made my points, debating; about what I thought I’d heard or seen.
I had become so hard to deal with, and from what everyone was saying,
it’s not a question of when, but where, they say that I’ll be staying.
I guess getting older isn’t easy, especially on all my family and friends.
If my behavior drives them all away, who’ll change my Depends?

I didn’t want to become a problem for anybody to deal with in their life.
It’s just that getting older; and its effects; has created all this strife.
I never wanted to become a pain, to have these ravings and these rants.
Nobody ever wants to hear; what’s that smell; did you fill your pants?
When something like this has happened, you just want it to be over;
to be laid to rest where you will ultimately be, underneath the clover.
But when I’m lucid, I have thoughts about it; it makes me pretty sad;
that my life has come full circle from when I was a younger dad.
For now they have their family to worry about and do not need my whine,
It’s just that I used to change their diapers, now their changing mine.