The Way It Ended
So time went by and they were middle-aged,
which seemed a crazy joke that time had played
on two young lovers. They were newly caged
canary birds - amused, not yet afraid.
A golden anniversary came around
where toasts were made and laughing stories told.
The lovers joined the laugh, although they found
the joke – but not themselves – was growing old.
She started losing and forgetting things.
Where had she left her book, put down her comb?
Her thoughts were like balloons with broken strings.
Daily he visited the nursing home
to make her smile and keep her in their game.
Death came at last. But old age never came.
The regularity of the meter makes me want to read l. 5 as “A golden anniversary came round”; this is the only place I stumbled. The logic of the first stanza bothered me a little. “They were newly caged / canary birds” works with “two young lovers,” but the main sense of the quatrain is that they are now middle-aged. And since the metaphor of the birds dominates, “amused, not yet afraid” can’t refer to the birds but to the young lovers, who aren’t young anymore. If they’ve passed the golden anniversary, they must be in their 70s, which sort of puts the lie to the final line.