David
Moochin Photoman
It’s not so bad, really, getting old. You hardly notice it at all. In your mind you’re still the same young rascal you were twenty, thirty, forty years ago.
Now and again you get ambushed by your years, sure. You look in the mirror and ask yourself “Who’s that old bastard, and where’d he come from?” You see a sports event on the television down the pub and you remember what it was like to be a young animal yourself, running flat out and never having to stop and bend over coughing. You spy the moon on a clear night, hovering over the city like a poem you used to know, but now can’t quite remember. You see a young family with a newish baby, and the mother’s holding the child’s wee little arm and using it to wave g’bye, and she’s saying “Bye bye Daddy, bye bye.” And you realize you’ve been waving g’bye all your life, to one thing or another.
There’s all that, sure, but mostly you go about your day without giving it a thought. Because in the unhurried moment-to-moment tide of daily life, what does it matter, your age? Here’s the truth of it: the old bastard in the mirror is still and always the young rascal in the mind. Here’s the truth of it: it’s more important to remember the beauty of the poem than the words. Here’s the truth of it: every time you wave g’bye to one thing, you’re waving hello to another. It’s not so bad, getting old. You don’t even notice it when your mind is occupied with hello.
Say hello to David, here, the sharp-eyed young lad with the full head of hair and the strong teeth and the broad shoulders.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
