When I am old, please
don't call me "sprightly".
Don't term me "spunky",
or add to each compliment
the dagger "for her age" -
thus losing any dignity
which I may have retained.

Don't tell me, or others,
how amazing I am "all things considered".
Don't rob me of the dignity
once conferred by years,
The respect that was once an elder's due.

Don't treat me as if I am
an artifact, an anachronism,
like the furniture and bric-a-brac
I've collected through the years,
a period piece without relevance to the current era.

Here, let me teach you by my example,
by how I treat my own elders,
by my own behaviour toward others as they cross my path.

For someday, that *will* be me.
That will be you.
That will be us,
and we must hope we have taught the younger generation well.