In the Mirror (7 to 70)

What he sees in the mirror is young and cute –
Cowlick hair and a too-big suit.
Little girls giggle behind their hands,

But a rag tag game is in his plans.

What he sees in the mirror is young and slim –
A tall slender dude - Girls go for him. 
With wavy hair and a twinkle in his  eye –
He's the high school hunk and the girls all sigh ...

He's the band drum major, sings bass in the choir –
An honor roll student who wants to go higher.
Girls see his potential, a life of ease –
They dream of him: "O, marry me please!"

In college he strolls with a purposeful air,
Then marriage and family and God and prayer.
A blest life, and happy, even with some woes –
Then suddenly it's winter; how fast the time goes!

What he sees in the mirror – how time has passed by!
Now the former he-man has tears in his eyes.
He's passed the age of three-score and ten –
Nearer to God than he's ever been.

What sins he's committed! Friends come and lost –
Impetuous acts, now paying the cost.
He's repented of wrongs, and God forgave.
He's doing OK, thanking God he's saved.

- by Netagene, November 21, 2014. I also changed a few things and wrote a girls' version. A friend I've never met in person called me a minute before the poem hit his email (a few minutes after I finished writing it). While we were on the phone, he read it out loud, “cold” of course. I’d read it out loud, but it was different hearing it read by a baritone voice. It made me cry. (Makes me think of the people who made idols, then bowed down to them!) I’m 70, he’s 71.