I REFUSE TO GET OLD AND DIE


By
James Bredin

Too bad, I’m getting very old and gray and I’m not too pleased,
I’m still reasonably healthy and I’m still not too diseased,
Unfortunately, I still think as though I just turned seventeen,
Which is probably illegal and criminal, if not obscene.



And I’m also stuck in the present tense and there’s no going back,
And many of my old friends and comrades have died of heart attacks,
Because they too seemed to have been stuck in nineteen sixty two,
Long before computers when even typewriters were few.



Many of them didn’t even know how the keyboard was laid out,
And they were much too proud to even ask, what’s it all about,
Many of their names are on headstones in the cemetery now,
It all depends on how much time I have what god will allow.

Dec 7th, 2010