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On Aging

Despising my dull, listless time as a child,
I once wished myself to be fully-grown:
now grown, no longer am I as beguiled
by growing up (as mid-life I bemoan);
the wisdom of many long years is sublime,
but the salad days of youth eternal
are what makes poems of beauty rhyme;
for shedding of leaves in life is normal.
Therefore, be in the winter of one's life
with love: for love restores one like a tonic,
carves out the melancholy like a sharp knife
(to hush the voices so dark and demonic).
To age well, live well: so love and be loved,
and bar not the comfort of one's beloved.

Sonnet by Ngoc Nguyen