Sonnet #164 - A Meditation on Aging

(hat tip to my high school Spanish teacher and basketball coach, Bob Vasquez)

A Meditation on Aging

My walks are shorter now. Five or six blocks
to the grocery store twice a week
and once a month to the pharmacy is
about all I can manage. My coach warned
“Getting old ain’t for sissies.” He was right.
My gait is wobbly and my steps, unsure.
My feet hurt. I miss those long river walks.

But I make up the deficit by reading
long stories, and long, epic poetry,
stuff like Dante and Virgil and Borges.
And I recite Psalms from the Bible and
the Meccan Surahs and Shakespeare sonnets.
And the bones in my feet don’t hurt so bad.