Monday, June 9, 2014

Surveying the Century

With the concurrence
of bad food
an at-risk natural world
and modern medicine

today it's fashionable
to want a satisfying
healthy life

rather than one
that is merely long.

Probably a positive trend overall
in terms of self-
and other-awareness.

but yesterday the oldest man
in the world
111-year-old
New Yorker Alexander Imich

died after evading
the Nazis in Poland

learning five languages
getting a Zoology degree

and writing books.

He was once asked
how he lived so long

and answered
"I don't know.
I simply didn't die earlier."

He did take physical care
of himself
by eating well
and exercising

but there's something to be said
for sticking around
with a slightly beat-up machine

doing what you can with it
but also

just being around to see.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.