They keep talking about retirement.
I,
with fewer years of life
than they have years of contributions,
smile.
I still have
forty-something years to go.
If the number
doesn’t change again.
Retirement
is the new lottery.
Some people
just wait
for their numbers
to come up.
© 2026 Sofia Silva
Afterword
This poem grew out of a conversation that, at first, seemed ordinary. People spoke about retirement with the familiarity of those who could almost reach it. I listened from a different place: not because I was uninterested, but because the finish line they imagined still felt impossibly far away.
What struck me was the uncertainty.
For my generation, retirement is no longer a destination that naturally follows a lifetime of work. It has become a projection, constantly revised by economic realities, political decisions, and demographic change. We are asked to prepare for a future whose rules keep changing.
Some of them are not talking about retirement. They are talking about the freedom to do whatever they wish too. They are just daydreaming