Long Life
I wish I was a granny down in Gangnam
My knitting needles gaily cast aside
Giving the slip to God as to the hangman
Making life insurers boggle-eyed
I wish I was a nana in Samcheok
Seeing sixty in with wilful smile
But I’m a man (it’s just my bad damn luck!)
I wish I had their never-ending style
I wish I was a matriarch of Shinchon
With lotus ponds to tend, and sour tea
No sense of time departing, not to flinch from
The wind still blowing from the Yellow Sea
I wish I was an oldie dame in Seoul
With thirty years to juggle as I please
Feeling that summer’s really on a roll
No falling leaves to follow in the trees
When you go, I know you have to go
But all the same, I wish that I was thus:
A well-retired woman from Mokpo
We senior sons! What will become of us?
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