I said, “I’m nearly seventy” realizing
I was practicing for that day to say,
“I am seventy” without stumbling over
the language, the implications of time
and eternity, the certainty of apocalypse
after that last breath that exchanges now
for what’s next. It’s a number of gravitas,
of something more where less is promised
and the evaluation of what to do, to say,
to feel, to think makes the phrase “less
is more” a prophecy to be fulfilled.
Heartbeat and breath, sight and sound,
the richness of taste and touch, the scent
of that divine presence of someone fully
next to me are treasures enough to receive
and give away. “I’m nearly seventy,” I
say to myself; I think that sounds okay.
-Byron Hoot
