I’m an old man now

my course is run.

I sit on the porch swing and look back

at the things I’ve done.

 

Where are the victories

in the arguments I’ve won?

What foolish worries matter,

I can’t think of one.

 

The effect of my life

on this earth is nil.

There will just be a marker

on some faraway hill.

 

Yet through my melancholy,

I watch my children’s children.

Across the grass and flowers

they run.

 

They glow with the excitement

and potential of life.

The personification

of a loving husband and wife.

 

My mind races

as I clearly see,

that a good husband and father

was enough to be.

 

With a wife I did love

and a life I did live,

to this world

a nice family I did give.