BoomerCafé™ ... it's your place » Joanne Tolles http://www.boomercafe.com Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:05:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 en Boomer Poetry: Life’s Little Renewals http://www.boomercafe.com/2007/12/27/boomer-poetry/ http://www.boomercafe.com/2007/12/27/boomer-poetry/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:33:16 +0000 Cafe http://boomercafe.com/2007/12/27/122/ ShareThis

]]> Joanne TollesIf we live long enough, we’ll all go where baby boomer poet Joanne Tolles has gone. Unless we’ve already been there. But somehow, where some of us find fear in a new stage of life, Joanne finds renewal!

I had to go there -
my license was expired.
I had to go to that place -
the dreaded DMV -
for my renewal.

I waited and waited
and wondered why
they couldn’t be
efficient, polite, and friendly.
It’s always the same
at the DMV.

My name was called,
finally.
My picture pasted on
the card and the
next expiration date
boldly stamped -
2012.

Sheer panic hit
as I did the math.
The next time I came
to the DMV for
my renewal
I would be - oh no - 58!

How could that be?
I’d be almost dead -
surely in a wheelchair -
losing all my hair and
wearing false teeth.
How could that be?
Where had the years gone?

It took me a day
living in this state
Of sheer panic
to see that
the prime of my life
is here now.
Now is when
all my years of work
can be fruitful
and really mean something.
Now is beautiful
and full of life.

The paradigm shifted.
The renewal happened.
A new stage of my life is here.

Welcome to my 50s.

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