Counting Backwards
Counting Backwards
by Linda Pastan
How did I get so old,
I wonder,
contemplating
my 67th birthday.
Dyslexia smiles:
I’m 76 in fact.
There are places
where at 60 they start
counting backwards;
in Japan
they start again
from one.
But the numbers
hardly matter.
It’s the physics
of acceleration I mind,
the way time speeds up
as if it hasn’t guessed
the destination—
where look!
I see my mother
and father bearing a cake,
waiting for me
at the starting line.
Usually when one considers ‘counting backwards’ there’s a multitude of negative connotations such as a countdown to destruction or just the mere fact that one is going backwards and not forwards seems to indicate regression. But here the poet makes regression a good thing as if starting over, anew, or going back to the beginning (“I see my mother and father bearing a cake, waiting for me at the starting line.”) I enjoyed the read and appreciated the thought that we may reconceive life, reclaim it, and bask in the sunlight of happier thoughts. thx for sharing!