Age Is Just A Number

But then it is how old you are.
 
And you can divide those years
into breaths taken from the air
that makes the energy
to add up all those years.
 
The engine that drives
us warm.
 
Better to calculate
what air needs from us.
 
Likely a very low number,
the turning of fortunate gas
into living.
 
                 Gravity means
oxygen will not spin away,
waves of atoms lining up
to make galaxies.
 
And all I have to do
is take a deep breath
and be as old as I am.

Michael Penny was born in Australia, but now lives on an island near Vancouver, Canada. He pursues his interest in sustainable development as chair of the Municipal Advisory Planning Commission. He has published five books and in over forty literary journals.

Image by Annie Spratt