When I’m Sixty-Four

Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I’m sixty four?
(Lyrics by the Beatles)

This coming February 11th
I will be sixty four years old
A birthday milestone
That I never truly
Expected to achieve
Belonging to the boomer generation
And having grown up
With the expectation
That everything
Sooner or later
Was going to go BOOM!
And we were not to be disappointed
Having survived
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The closest the world has ever come
To actual nuclear war
Based on the insane cold war deterrence doctrine
Of mutually assured destruction (MAD)
And again, we were not to be disappointed
For haven’t we done a fine job
Of mutually destroying each other
Despite six decades (so far)
Of desperate carnal embrace
Till death do us part
For better or worse
Clearly not
Marriage having proven to be
The most temporary and fragile
And breakable of states
Thereby sadly providing the answer
To the original query

Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I’m sixty four?