Octogenarian’s Song
Image source: Unsplash
by Dr. Lloyd Jacobs
The aged are driven to the redoubt
where the game is solitaire
and the cards and dice are recollections
The world of youth expands,
apace the universe itself, but the aged
know their world will shrink to nothing.
Not to explore again an urban wilderness
Not to ride again the buoyant sea
Not to know again love’s lubricious feast
We are the housebound, confined where
infirmity destroys. So lay the cards
in suits and play against the fates.
Dr. Lloyd Jacobs is President Emeritus of The University of Toledo. He has published 3 collections of poetry and was previously a professor of vascular surgery at the University of Michigan
