Nearly Fifty

Nearly Fifty
by cricketjeff on December 19, 2009.  © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
Find forty nine reasons for staying alive
Like strawberry ice-cream and chocolate surprise
A night at the theatre or learning to jive
Or drowning in witch hazel eyes

Find forty nine reasons for getting back home
A film on the telly a child who says please
A single white lily a flight into Rome
A bum that you SO want to squeeze

Find forty nine reasons to try it again
There’s turkey for dinner and honey for tea
New novels to read and new poems to pen
Or head off to swim in the sea

Find forty nine reasons to give it a go
A ring with a sapphire a new pair of shoes
A Hollywood star in a new West End show
Or B.B. King singing the blues

Find forty nine reasons for not giving up
Like asti or cava or even champagne
Your friend’s on the telly your team’s in the cup
A summer day ending in rain

Here’s forty nine reasons to smile at the world
A roast chicken dinner a win on the pools
A band playing Souza when flags are unfurled
They start teaching rhyming in schools

With forty nine reasons for hanging on in
A jug full of cider and friends round to share
That posh kid from school is now very not thin
And songbirds are heard everywhere

Find forty nine reasons for greeting each day
An opera by Mozart a pie in the face
A trip to the zoo or a weekend away
Or watching a Keystone Kops chase

Find forty nine reasons this isn’t the end
There’s snow on the ground and the sun’s in the sky
A call from a stranger, a note from a friend
A lesson in learning to fly

Now forty nine reasons, if I’ve counted right
When grass is still green and the sky is still blue
A rainbow in daylight the moon every night
The forty ninth reason is you!