New Plateau

This year I’ll reach a new plateau,
Only one step from the grave below.
The survey asks what is your age?
I guess I’m locked in the old-age cage!

I check the highest answer I find,
65 or older is how I’m defined.
But with these years, what do I see?
A wealth of life still left in me.

The wrinkles tell of laughs and tears,
A map of journeys through the years.
I’ve earned the wrinkles in skin and thought,
Reflective of the many battles I’ve fought.

Both mind and body are always failing,
But I won’t succumb to sadness and wailing.
With every ache and creak and groan,
A story's told, a lesson shown.

I’ve burned many bridges, ashes smolder,
I’m not dead yet, just a little older.
So don’t write me off just yet,
For today I seek a new regret.

Backstory

04/15/2024 Not quite there yet, but I will soon turn 65. I took a medical survey yesterday and
realized that beginning this year I will finally reach the age pinnacle, at least as far as this
survey goes, as the last checkbox is “65 or older”.