Age of My Father

(my father on the left)

Soon I will turn 70

The age my mother died

Not too many years beyond that

Is the age my father died

When a parent dies suddenly, accidentally

We feel dad was cheated out of life, mom should have lived longer

Our passing that age brings up the bitterness

The bile of what we still feel is an unjust death

But to live beyond that age a parent died

Accidentally or from old age, suddenly or gradually

Brings us to the mirror

To see what we may not wish to see

In our twenties, we scoffed at death

It was so far in the future, it wasn’t even visible

But in our later years, what was a mirage

Is all too real

To live longer than a parent brings a strange reality

As if we had won some cosmic game show

We see ourselves moving ahead in years

But there is that nagging view from behind

What could our parents have accomplished

With one more day or one more year?

What should we accomplish

When we pass the year of a parent’s death?