Egbertje
Egbertje Leutscher-de Vries, the oldest woman in the Netherlands, died at the age of 111. She said the key to her longevity was eating a cooked egg every day.
When she attained one hundred and eleven,
A number seldom seen up there in heaven,
All asked, how does one drain life to the dregs?
Egbertje said, The secret lies in eggs.
Just one, soft-boiled, some salt, the usual way,
Restored her health and so deferred the day
She would at last meet up with her Creator.
Cholesterol will get you sooner–or later.
Susan de Sola is an American poet living in the Netherlands. She has published poems in The Hudson Review, The Hopkins Review, Light Quarterly, American Arts Quarterly, River Styx, and many other journals. She is the co-creator, as photographer, of a chapbook, Little Blue Man, with Clive Watkins, and is a winner of the David Reid Poetry Translation Prize.