The final laps

 The final laps


The final laps run slower

But the pleasure’s all the deeper

With time to stop to watch the crowd

Who watch the faster runner


In the later laps the needs recede

No show of virtue - just necessity 

Small things confer greatest joy

Thank God for smaller things. 


No longer two shirts are needed

When one will do quite well

Give him the second who has none 

The wish to accrete is gone. 


Freedom comes with less clothes

The naked spirit can sing 

The psalms of the innocent days 

When the world was contained in a cot. 


Round the great wheel turns 

Back to where it first begun

Round our souls have come 

Back to where they once belonged. 


All of life is but a circle

For the fortunate few who live

Beyond the Bible’s best guess

Surviving three score and ten. 


Blessed are those who see

Their children’s children’s first steps

Blessed are those who last

To embrace the ghosts of the past. 


Old age is oft thought a burden 

But more than that - a blessing

Given to few, the fortunate,

Aches come with the package. 

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