The Prime of Life

It was, in truth, an eager youth
Who halted me one day.
He gazed in bliss at me, and this
Is what he had to say :

“Why, mazel tov, it’s Asimov,
A blessing on your head !
For many a year, I’ve lived in fear
That you were long since dead.

Or if alive, one fifty-five
Cold years had passed you by,
And left you weak, with poor physique,
Thin hair and rheumy eye.

For sure enough, I’ve read your stuff
Since I was but a lad
And couldn’t spell nor hardly tell
The good yarns from the bad.

My father too, was reading you
Before he met my Ma,
For you he yearned, once he had learned
About you from his Pa.

Since time began, you wondrous man,
My ancestors did love
That s.f dean and writing machine
The Aged Asimov.”

I’d had my fill. I said, “Be still !
I’ve kept my old-time spark.
My step is light, my eye is bright,
My hair is thick and dark.”

His smile, in brief, spelled disbelief,
So this is what I did;
I scowled, you know, and with one blow,
I killed that rotten kid.


Comments : Read the poem in a collection of stories by Asimov titled ‘ The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories’. Couldn’t stop grinning as I went through the poem. This poem is for all the cheeky young whipper-snappers I know. :-) Zen

Notes : First Published in the Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1966, the original title was ‘I’m in the prime of life, you rotten kid !’. Edward L. Ferman, editor of F&SF, shortened that to ‘The prime of life’. It is also part of a collection of stories by Asimov titled ‘ The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories’.