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!”

— Peggy Trojan