The young
should be taught,
what the old
know by instinct,
that every day
above ground is
a good day
Tag: cancer
Teredo
Ship worms
do to the
hull of the
old wooden boat
what ageing
does to the
body of the
old human being.
Last requests
There comes
a day for
everyone
when they
eat their
final meal
Also climate change
Cancer and
bushfires have
this in common –
the earlier you
can catch them
the better the
chance of a cure.
Collective noun
I awake,
each morning,
to a shudder,
of anxieties.
End of the road
Old age is
like walking through
a Grimm forest
in a dark night;
branches whip
the face; unseen
carnivores roar;
pits give way
underfoot; trees
fall with a crack;
and somewhere
ahead on the path,
waiting in the gloom,
is the slough of despond
The road taken
I took the road
less followed,
and found
land mines,
trolls, bandits,
potholes, mud
patches, fallen
trees, and then
my car broke
down. Next time
my way is the
highway.
Titled
Perhaps I
could call my
autobiography
“The Old Man
and the C”?
Three absent friends
Death by cancer is:
being pushed to
the lunch table in
a wheel chair when
cancer-riddled
bones won’t
support you;
measuring your
days in teaspoons
of morphine,
carefully counted;
carrying a
rubber cushion
to pad the pelvis
from which all flesh
has melted.
Cabbages and kings
Once we talked to
friends of their
children, their
houses, their
careers, their
plans and dreams;
of the books
they were writing,
films they had seen,
art they had created,
gardens they had grown.
Now we talk to
friends of their
illnesses, their
operations, their
diseases, their
pills and potions
and prognoses,
of who has died
and who will die
soon.
