getting old

when the grey hair is more than dark

and the eyes are growing dim

the joints feel pain more than relief

and you are not quite so slim


the long life with much to complain

and a body weary and cold

you seem to queue for everything

now your getting old


the medical help once freely offered

the doctors now decline

the offspring and the relatives

lay claim to what was mine


the complaints are more insistent

contentment seems so rare

and now you think of happy times

of friends no longer there


all those children in cancer wards

and abroad that die of thirst

the many droughts and famine

humanity at its worst


you don't believe in any god

after life is nothing there

but if your wrong and he exists

he'd best beware


there are answers that you seek

why oh why oh why

with all that heavenly power

so many innocent must die


those infants that have done no wrong

in agony expire

so god vacate this heavenly place

and join the sinners in the fire