Ol' Young Les Fol-long
ain’t quite young no more
for fifty’s quite strong
an age-score I’m sure.
No whipper-snapper
he’s now slowing down
not quite a “sapper”
(if you know that noun)!
Not ‘cause he’s a sap
(he still sure is not!),
but who knows this chap
knows he’s losing “what…
…is it? His “gung ho”?
His “young & silly"!
House-door’s been hung “so”
got time w'his “filly”.
Says he feels “slowing”.
His mind sure is not!
It’s flame needs “blowing
out", sometimes that’s what
fouls up his body
& stops it from rest,
“D'vining” that wadi*
may make him quite blessed.
“Blessed, as a blessing”
to who’s coming by;
and he’s expressing
what we wouldn’t try!
And half a century;
the age to do it!
He, as a sentry,
sees what’s come through it.
God, give him ee-yrs
and eyes that can see;
even with tee-yrs
he’ll live in you three
Won, (he’s been) .. over,
won over by love.
A pig in clover,
“Columba”- the dove.
* A wadi can be an intermittent stream, but
according to Wikipedia, there
have been times/places e.g. “ Andalusian Arabic where wādī was used to mean a permanent
river” & “In the Maghreb, the term wadi
(wad in Maghrebi Arabic,
sometimes transcribed Oued) is
applied to all rivers including regular ones". But the doggerel-ist ist also thinking of childlike humility, cessation
of the flow of thoughts, & non-concern about great matters, & difficult
subjects, because of a simple trust in one who is greater still (e.g. Psalm
131)