Rocking the Fifties

I spent my Thirties and Forties focused on
Family and career, getting ahead,
Bringing home the bacon and makin’
Everyone happy — everyone was happy.

As Fifty approached, I felt the clock ticking,
I felt like there was still time to do
All the things I’d put off doing
So I could raise my kid and get ahead.

I joined a gym, started doing yoga,
Rode my bike on the W. and O.D. Trail,
I always said I’d play ball again at fifty,
So I joined a team that played competitively.

It started out with twenty games a year
In a league for thirty-five and older,
When I realized I still had game
I joined a league for all ages — eighteen to sixty.

Soon, I was managing a team
And playing down at the “Hot Corner” (Third Base),
Snagging scorching line drives, making all the plays,
And knocking the cover off the ball at the plate.

Twenty games grew to sixty, then a hundred,
Playing on three teams, then four, umpiring more;
By fifty-seven I was playing a hundred-twenty
Games a year, realizing my childhood dream.

I’d always wanted to grow up to be
A ballplayer — in my Fifties, I became one;
At fifty-five I won my first championship, ever,
And made the game winning catch, to boot!

Several more championships followed,
I left it all out on the fields of Fairfax County
In my Fifties, got it all out of my system,
By sixty-one, I retired, content, one dream fulfilled.

My other big dream had been to be a writer,
I’d left that dream behind in my Thirties
To focus more on career and family,
In my Fifties I started writing like a demon.

I wrote a thousand words a day, every day,
For five years, writing stories, poems, fiction and blogs,
Up at 4 a.m. each day, I wrote to my heart’s content,
And then I wrote some more, until I’d said it all.

Now, three years into my Sixties, I walk,
I walk five miles a day, I swim, and I breathe,
I no longer write like a demon, I write when I want,
And sleep, I sleep much more, and relax a lot.

The other thing I’d always wanted to do,
Was travel the world, cruise the high seas,
See all the places I’d seen in the Navy,
In a more leisurely way, with my love at my side.

We cruised the world in my Fifties, saw all the sights,
From the Panama Canal to Curacao, Bahamian Cays to the Virgin Islands,
From Iceland to Denmark, Amsterdam to Spain,
The Azores to Canaries, Stonehenge to Dover.

We went to Mother Russia, enjoyed lovely Estonia,
Sweden and Finland, Germany and Nova Scotia,
I stood on the deck one pre-dawn morning,
As our ship steamed in to the Rock of Gibraltar.

We also cruised the Hawaian Islands,
Sailed up the inner passage to the final frontier
Alaska, where we drove into the Yukon Wilderness,
And laughed like kids in an off-road excursion!

It seems that in my Fifties, I did all the things
I ever wanted to do, and hit my Sixties
With so much momentum, I’m ready to go
Another forty more, to triple digits, double-fifty!

A hundred, let’s go!