BEASTLY TALES

TEMPUS FUGIT

Uncle Alfred found it hard to believe,
When age of fifty, he did achieve.
“Where has all that prior time gone?”
“Where did that time go, where has it flown?”
“Tempus Fugit”, an old Latin saying,
Times Flies, and so diminishes, allaying.
“Water under the bridge, old chap,”
So said the Colonel, in a philosophical flap.

The very next thing Uncle Alfred knew,
Another decade had passed it’s due,
Yes, he had sixty now, so called, turned.
A decade, in seemingly no time at all, he’d burned,
“People are starting to no longer rely on me,”
“Folk so often enquire how well I do be.”

Yes, in almost a blink of the eye,
Ten more years did rapidly zoom by.
Time can pass with astonishing speed,
Especially when more time you do need.
Seventy years, that’s three score and ten,
Uncle Alfred could be included with elderly men.
He was often whining, “I don’t feel so old,”
Except in the mornings, with my joints, in the cold.
But, perhaps, I don’t think as fast,
And my memory was better in the past.
But since folk no longer expect as much,
It no longer matters if I now say “such” and “such”,
Because I can’t remember a name,
Not really my fault, I’m not to blame!

“But cousin Virgil is eighty six,”
“And still he jumps with pogo sticks,”
“Yesterday I saw the silly old toad,”
“Bouncing merrily down the road.”
“He seems to find life not so hard,”
“He’s always working in his yard.”
“He made a date when working Meals on Wheels,”
“His help in packing food before it congeals,”
“Her name is Penelope, she’s eighty three,”
“They became accustomed to sharing their tea.”
“Another thing that is remarkable too,”
“They planned to wed, but she got the flu.”
“Perhaps they can still wed when she recovers,”
“And spend each night, together, under the covers.”

So it’s said that people live longer now-a-days.
Living longer could be the new craze!
Medical advancement, and all that stuff,
Augurs well if one doesn’t eat rough.
Or drink to excess, or smoke anything,
Such things are well known, to detriment bring.
Cousin Virgil was fond of saying
With much panoply and donkey braying.
“I plan to live to one hundred years”
“Such is my plan, never you fears,”
“And should I die in this attempt,”
“I will consider myself to be, of living, exempt!”