I spoke to my brother-in-law recently and he wondered why it was that he was beginning to feel irrelevant. I thought for a minute and said, “It’s because you’re eighty-five freakin’ years old!”

Irrelevance comes stealing like a cat
Tiptoeing oh so lightly without sound
The years slide by with silent steps so that
We realize too late that all around
Has changed and we are far behind the curve
The traffic up ahead just flashing by
We think we still have all the vim and verve
We had when young but now it makes you cry
to think that this fair world that once we ruled
A leader to our family and friends
Has turned from heated pace to limping cooled
And horrified we see how it all ends
We matter not in anything at all
We have no say in how the world is run
We sit at home and wish someone would call
And watching daytime TV is no fun
Irrelevance has come to claim its due
We sigh but really have no hard regrets
Old memories still stick to us like glue
And an irrelevant never forgets