Living Long
Never thought much about it
when I was young,
ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
even sixty.
Now, in the last quarter,
I realize if I keep going
another twenty years,
I will near the hundred mark.
When people die early, it is said,
“What a shame, she was so young!”
I have worked at staying alive,
often followed rules of food and drink,
lived happily when I could,
treated my neighbors like myself.
If I die a centenarian, could people say,
”What a shame, she was so old!”