A Cure for Old Age

 

 

Its ravages are coming sooner

For the apparent young,

They no longer laugh at the old

Who are still fairly strong.

 

Medical personnel are concerned

With diabetes and cancer,

Add to these the problem of asthma

And of high blood pressure.

 

Non-communicable diseases

Or NCDs, they call them,

And these illnesses during COVID-19

Caused severe problems.

 

Several people with NCDs

Died after contracting COVID-19,

It might have been worse than this

Were it not for the vaccine.

 

 

This view is held by some

Though many feel otherwise,

Many lauded the vaccine programme

While for others it was despised.

 

There was another feature:

Many in their nineties died,

The prospect of becoming centenarians

Was suddenly denied.

 

This leads me to the title

That is the subject of this poem,

A cure for old age, I am begging,

To ease my present problem.

 

Seven decades I have reached,

Not without the aches and pains,

Old age, they say, is a brute,

It is certainly not a game.

 

 

My father passed at eighty-seven,

My mother at ninety-two,

I wish for a cure before I pass,

My friend, how about you?

 

At least to see one great-grand

Would be my desired wish,

And if possible, maybe two or three,

Four I would really relish.

 

Oh, how I would like a cure

For this old age problem of mine

And yours too, if you are old,

Right now, in our time.

 

 

So, Docs, I am begging you,

Find a cure for old age

And I do not mean the grim reaper,

Find it before this stage.

 

I know there is a cure

But that will come with death,

This is for the born-again believers

When in Jesus they rest.

 

Find that cell and switch it off

That causes old age to come

So that I could live a long, long time

And see my great grandson.

 

Stewart Russell © September 5, 2023