You need
to be
really fit
to survive
old age.
Tag: cancer
Always
The youngest in the room
The smartest in the room
The poorest in the room
The happiest in the room
The saddest in the room
The oldest in the room
The sickest in the room
The deadest in the room
Like flies on a carcase
Every time a poem
on the internet
mentions cancer
the spammers
and the scammers
instantly swarm
Directions
There is an old
joke, where you ask
some yokel “How do
I get to xxxx?” and
he replies “Well I
wouldn’t start
from here.”
My life feels like
that but in reverse –
how did I get here
from there?
Toss up
I don’t want
to live to be
100,
but I also
don’t want to
not live to be
100.
Moments in time
One moment
you’re secure in the
cocoon of youth:
no ailments, at home
in your body, watching
time pass so slowly,
seeing old people
as another species,
knowing you will
never change.
The next moment
you’re not.
The tolling bell
I had a friend
who didn’t make
it to twenty.
Another never
reached forty.
One more was
gone before fifty.
Finally there was
the friend who
fell short of seventy.
I am closing fast
on my next landmark
of eighty years.
Lucky.
Sad.
Stayin’ alive
The older you
get the more
your focus shifts
from ambition
to survival
One moment
The other day,
in a waiting room
of a medical scanning
centre, I saw two
elderly ladies. One
went in for her scan
while the other waited
anxiously. When she came
out they held hands,
talking quietly and
seriously about what
had been done,
been said, staring into
each other’s eyes.
Then they left
and through the
window I could see
a fervent embrace,
before they moved on,
arms around each
other, providing comfort,
very much in love.
Dark stranger
Every New Year’s
Eve, we say to
ourselves – “Well
I hope next year
is better than this
year”. But, as every
New Year’s Day
rolls through the door,
we realise it was
probably
a forlorn hope
