measels,
should be measles

14 operation
should be fourteen operations

I am now 68 soon to be 69

I have cheated death
24 times in my long life

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starting when I was a young lad
and had all the childhood diseases
over a five year period.
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including the flu pandemic of 1957

measels, mumps, whooping cough.
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later I had typhoid fever in 1979.
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in 1991 almost died in a train accident.
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in 1995, I went jogging fell
and ended up with  fourteen operations
over the course of a year.

later had hammer toe surgery too.

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as a mutant drug-resistant staph
almost killed me
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ended up in the ER
later that year
due to an acute GI infection
caused by too many antibiotics

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acquired a weird parasite

in Bangkok

it stays in your system

inert for years.

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but if you take steroids

for any reason

it blows up to the size

of a Pilates ball

instantly killing you.

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survived a total car crash

winter 1996 in Texas.

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got sick in India a coupl.e of times
dengue fever in Barbados.
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bronchitis summer 2019
Pneumonia Winter of 2023.

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and dreaded coronavirus
in 2023.

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my father died of cancer
his father died of cancer
both at age 65.
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and so I felt  
I may escape the curse
that befell my father.
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and cheated death again

but I know that

the Grim Reaper
will be calling me

some day.
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and I will be waiting
and will ask him
why did he let me escape
death so many times before.
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I am waiting to hear
his answer.
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wondering why I am still alive
when death came near me
so many times before.

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