The Second Sixty-five

From my collection called Outrageous Poems

Well, at the age of sixty five,

Says you, I’m lucky to be alive.

But the odds are very good today

A second sixty five will come my way.

 

         So, get up on your feet and share my joy.

And Jump around like a bouncy boy.

And Stamp your feet and laugh and shout

And throw your arms and legs about.

Aren’t we lucky to be alive

To enjoy the second sixty five?

 

 

Well, when my life was just begun,

The odds were a billion or so to one

That I wouldn’t survive till half this age:

Now look at me bouncing around the stage.

 

So, get up on your feet and share my joy.

And Jump around like a bouncy boy.

And Stamp your feet and laugh and shout

And throw your arms and legs about.

Aren’t we lucky to be alive

To enjoy the second sixty five?

 

The odds were then I’d be carried off

By measles or the whooping cough,

Or a drunken driver in an Austin car;

But I wasn’t and I’ve done alright so far.

 

So, get up on your feet and share my joy.

And Jump around like a bouncy boy.

And Stamp your feet and laugh and shout

And throw your arms and legs about.

Aren’t we lucky to be alive

To enjoy the second sixty five?

 

Now, what are the odds from here on in

That the whooping cough will do me in?

Not very great, and reduced by far

Are the chances I’ll be caught by an Austin car.

 

So, get up on your feet and share my joy.

And Jump around like a bouncy boy.

And Stamp your feet and laugh and shout

And throw your arms and legs about.

Aren’t we lucky to be alive

To enjoy the second sixty five?

 

The odds are good that I’ll survive

Indeed another sixty five.

No need to heed the prophets of doom:

To celebrate, dance around the room.

 

So, get up on your feet and share my joy.

And Jump around like a bouncy boy.

And Stamp your feet and laugh and shout

And throw your arms and legs about.

Aren’t we lucky to be alive

To enjoy the second sixty five?