Learning to Grow Old

I am learning to grow old.

New lessons every day and getting harder.

I don’t learn as quickly as I used to

and I’m already so full of  information

my brain runneth over.

The textbooks are out of date,

falling apart;

pages smeared with cribbles and erasures.

No holidays,

homework every day,

tests frequent, failure painful.

It literally hurts.  

Whose idea is this? 

Who is making these assignments?

Am I supposed to be my own teacher?

Exhausted I fall asleep and dream exhausted dreams.

I do enjoy the field trips.though.

What a chancy place this world is.

Fascinating,

if youีre not afraid to look.

It can even be beautiful

like now,

when autumn leaves flicker in the wind . . . .

Transient flames, about to fall

onto rain-sodden ground.

                                                                                                jjrobinson

                                                                                        1/29/09