Wednesday, March 21, 2012

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AND COUNTING

by Earl J. Wilcox


This past week, sheer coincidence,
within two days of each other

two old neighbors died. She was 104.
He was 96. In recent years they lived

with their children across the street
from each other. Near the end both

were still spry, resonating an innocent
vigor truly old and wise people have.

Friends and family did the simple math today:
between the two the ancients had lived two

hundred years. Born with smoke from
the Spanish-American War still fanning

the air, the Centenarian and Nonagenarian
survived wars during almost every decade

of their long, long lives. They went out
while wars still rage. Combined, the two shared,

alas, twenty decades of wars and  rumors of wars,
affirming the biblical adage once again.


Earl J. Wilcox writes about aging, baseball, literary icons, politics, and southern culture. His work appears in more than two dozen journals; he is a regular contributor to The New Verse News. More of Earl's poetry appears at his blog, Writing by Earl.
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