I have some friends on waiting lists to move
to units built for over-55.
I understand convenience and approve
of choice but think, as long as I’m alive,
I’ll opt to live among diversity
in all respects, but most of all in years.
The young around keep stimulating me;
with start of school their vibrancy appears.

They gather at the bus stop full of talk.
They fill the streets like pilgrims when they walk
in clustered groups, backpacked and seldom cold,
an academic army, blue & gold
and eager/apprehensive in my eyes:
My inconvenient neighbors, foolish, wise.