When We are Seventy and You are Forty
by Robert M. Katzman © August 6, 1993
*
To Rachel Jennifer, at Thirteen
When we are seventy and you are forty:
It won’t matter if you
Ever repaired that explosion
You called your room
It won’t matter that
All of our bath towels
Were forever in your room
And on the floor
Soaking wet
In Hamster-land
*
It won’t matter that
Your determined
Gymnastics
In the living room
Sounded like
Incoming rockets
When we were
Seeking shelter
In the basement
*
When we are seventy and you are forty:
It won’t matter that
your high-spirited
mob of friends
Kept us up
Until three in the morning
Whenever they slept over
*
It won’t matter whether you were
An honor student or a misfit
It won’t matter that
Little bits of
Evidence of Rachel
Would be found in
Every single room
You’d ever been in
*
When we are seventy and you are forty:
All that will count to us is:
When the good things
Happen in your life,
you will want us to know
*
When you experience
Pain of any kind,
You will always know
Our hearts and arms are open to you
*
When we call you
If only to talk
You will always be
Willing
to listen to us
When we have heartache
We can always find
Solace with you
*
When we are seventy and you are forty:
And your brother is forty-two
Your sister is forty-five
May we all feel
As much love for
Each other then,
As we all feel
For each other today
***
When Rachel was born in 1980, Joy and I were 30. When this poem was written, Rachel was 13, we were 43.
Today, posted at a moment in Time when I actually am Seventy, Joy would have been and Rachel is Forty.
In July 1993, my (then) youngest child and daughter, Rachel, then nearly thirteen, had her Bat Mitzvah.
At her party, her mother Joyce and I read this serious poem I’d written for the happy occasion.
Her grandparents, Israel and Anne, my parents, were both there that day
As they were at my Bar Mitzvah thirty years earlier, in 1963.
Her older Sister, Lisa Heather (then eighteen) and
Brother David (then fifteen) were there as well.
I tried to read my words, and failed, as usual.
But Joyce finished all of it, as she always has.
**************************************
Publishing News!
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: http://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.