Poem: Happy Birthday (via 3qd)

So you’ve skied a double-diamond down the side of Fujiyama,
so you’ve taken tea and biscuits with the 14th Dalai Lama,
so you’ve studied metaphysics in the city of Shamballa,
so you’ve played a dazed Ophelia in that famous Shakespeare drama.
[indent]So your world is like a stage and it’s now your time to shine,
[indent]for you were ten plus eight, but now you’re four and six and nine.


So you’ve married a theosophist who worships Jakob Boehm,
so you’ve planned to one-up Caesar when it comes to ruling Rome,
so you’ve got noetic prowess and a spacious mental dome,
so you’ve stocked atomic registries from hydrogen to chrome.
[indent]So you’ve ironed out the ions and your half-life’s just begun,
[indent]for you were ten plus eight but now you’re twenty minus one.


So you’ve parodied Lord Byron and recited all of Yeats,
so you’ve summoned Sir Beelzebub near cemetery gates,
so you’ve cradled Tutankhamen and you’ve fed him salted dates,
so you’ve solved Goldbach’s conjecture using only ones and eights.
[indent]So your life is like a lottery and you’ve been dealt the primes,
[indent]for you were ten plus eight but now you’re one (just nineteen times).


So you’ve pilfered all the knowledge from the mind of Aristotle,
so you’ve chilled with Ernest Hemingway while knocking back a bottle,
so you’ve cured the world’s chrysanthemums of Botrytis and mottle,
so you’ve saddled up a quasar that you like to ride full-throttle.
[indent]So you’ve realized that existence is just a cosmic laugh,
[indent]for you were ten plus eight but now you’re thirty-eight, in half.

by Walter Ancarrow
via the incomparable 3quarksdaily

(I can't find any bio information on Walter Ancarrow. But, jiminycrickets, how splendid is this poem?)