40

isn’t a massive number.
It is if you’re unlucky enough
to be hit by a truck going at forty
(30 mph does more than enough damage!)
or if you’re heading towards a bend
at that speed
and don’t know what’s waiting
around the corner
but it is too young an age
for a life to end.

63 is too young too,
even if it is by your own hand.

No one in their right mind
would choose to go at 63.

I’m hoping for somewhere between
85 and 90

if

I’m not shuffling around the corridors
of a care home
hanging on to a walking frame
having conversations with myself
and waiting, expectantly, constantly
for relatives and friends
who died long before me
to pay me a visit.

That’s not too much to ask.
Is it?


How Long?