Les is fifty one today!

Les is fifty one today,
and we're feasting here with him,
("twenty-five" I heard one say)
yet his eye-sight is not dim.

Says he feels like eighteen years;
though he looks a little more,
& his wisdom brings more cheers
than you'd think from just one score[1]

But, just think he's almost.. Where?
Over Hill! (not "Under Dale")
Yet he says he isn't scared
(being quite a moving male):

if it's true he's more than half
(half a century is not bad!)
then he gives a little laugh
-still a cheerful kind of lad-

and it's all down-hill from here,
it must mean, from what he knows
of "down-hill"[2], then it appears
now it must be "easy goes!"

Easy running, faster pace,
much more fun, and blowing hair
comes with any down-hill race
s'ppose he thinks it's only fair...

Now he's in the second half,
well and truly – one year more-
think we'll see more "Gold" (not chaff)
even though he may get sore[3].

[1] A "score" is 20 (the old connotation for 70years was three score years and ten).
[2] Les' comment at Biddy Walsh's place last week when told he was now over the hill, was something like "Then it's all down-hill from her!"
[3] Katrina told us a story at the beginning of the night, about (as she got older) skipping with her children recently, and then as a result being stuck in bed, flat on her back, for two days..