Birthday Greetings

A Birthday Poem for our dear friends Billie & Marc,
with love from August & Tim:

Life is given to us,
we earn it by giving it.

Let the dead have the immortality of fame,
but the living the immortality of love.
Life's errors cry for the merciful beauty
that can modulate their isolation into a
harmony with the whole.

Life, like a child, laughs,
shaking its rattle of death as it runs.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

And lest we get too serious . . .

When I Am An Old Man I Shall Do As I Please.
I'll Not Cover My Mouth When I Cough Or I Sneeze.
I'll Put On A Shirt That Spent A Week On The Floor.
I'll Eat Five Or Six Cookies And Go Back For More.
I'll Burp And I'll Belch, Pass Gas With A Wink,
I'll Eat From A Dish That Spent Weeks In The Sink.
My Favorite Foods Will Come From A Can,
I'll Eat Every Hour, That Is My Plan.
I'll Forget My Zipper, Now That's Not So Bad,
For All You Know It Might Start A New Fad.
When I Am An Old Man, I'll Say What I Think.
I'll Tell You I'm Tired Of Bellies With Rings.
I'm Tired Of Noses And Tongues That Go Clink.
When I Am An Old Man I Wont Have To Brag,
No Special Colors For Me, I'll Be Starting To Sag.
My Color Is Gray, Has Been For Years.
It's The Color Of Hair That Grows In My Ears.
I Wont Need To Wear Red Or Purple You See,
I'll Admit That I'm Old When I'm One Hundred And Three.

© 2005 Bill Waddell