Clinging Onto A Youth Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

It had not been too long ago,
When I accepted growing older and aging.
Clinging onto a youth.
Stubbornly refusing to let it go.
I was all up in my 40s.
Feeling still in my 30s.
And then one day,
For whatever the reason and feeling ageless.
I had asked someone in their 20s,
To guess my age.
Then to hear them say,
They saw me talking to their grandfather.
Who had 'claimed' as a child,
I once pushed his stroller.
When he was then just a baby.

I don't know why people choose to lie.
Especially since we are all getting older.
And he wasn't a baby either.
He was 2 years old.
Thank God I know what a baby looks like.
My memory has not begun to fade.

"Hmmm...
Let me see.
If my grandfather is in his 60s.
You have to be at least,
71 or 72.
Even though you appear to be 69.
Why?
How old are you? "

Old enough not to ask that question again!
And besides...
Age ain't nothing but a...
Nothing but a...

"Number?
Another notch on a cane."

Excuse me?
I don't need or use a cane.

"It's just an expression.
I didn't mean to offend you."

Oh.
Don't be silly.
Why should I be offended?

"Are you asking me.
Or yourself? "