The old guy I don't want to be

When my Medicare card came

It was a disappointing metaphor for old

Not sleek, smooth, immortal plastic

But flimsy, pedestrian, evanescent paper

Reminding me that

I'm entering the final phase of life

As I know it

Not wanting to be cliche'

The grumpy old man

The vapid get-off-my-lawn guy

Confounded by technology

Bewildered by change

Irrationally clinging to youth

Refusing to accept

What can't be changed

Unnecessarily, prematurely

Dismissed and disrespected

Treated condescendingly

Invisible,

Irrelevant

Unfunny

Uninteresting

Embarrassing

Pitied

Patronized

Dependent...

What I want is to be

The antithesis of these

Not that what I want matters

In a world where I

(We)

Have so little control

And matter so little

Except to each other

Sometimes