old age (Remove filter)
Dementia
Dementia
I've escaped, I've walked out, from the strange mystery home
Im free to wander, the old places I'll roam
That man calls me brother, shouting my name
I'll shuffle away, what's his silly game
These keys in my pocket, now where is the car
How did I get here have a wandered to far
This fog in mind, the thoughts not firing
I'm sure to remember, shall I keep trying
Fred at the new...
Monday 15th April 2024 9:36 pm
Lest we Forget
So I sit alone, cold on a bench, world's away from my comrades, that lie dead in the trench.
These hands that saw violence, these eyes growing dark, this world bathed in silence, a new journey to embark.
We did it for kings, we followed the crown, we rushed from the boats, I saw many drown.
They pinned a shiny medal, right there on my chest, and I heard the bell toll as we laid them to rest.
...
Sunday 14th April 2024 6:51 pm
It's Only On The Outside (That I am Old)
It’s only on the outside that I am old.
Inside
I’m a beach surfer
Running along the sand
Diving, splashing
Riding the waves
Running like I could run forever
It’s only on the outside that I am old.
Inside
I’m a heart breaker
A flirter
A girl chaser
A love making stallion
A beer drinking
Stay out later
No holes barred chance taker
I...
Tuesday 12th September 2023 9:44 pm
Minch Surgery last Monday
It might be gout, arthritis,
I’ll take some blood.
What for?
To test for uric acid, diabetes
and other things, he muttered.
I might have asked: Like what?
But with his box of needles out
I worked on breathing calmly,
averting eyes from the likely spot;
although there was no pain.
Even at this age there is something
in my look that makes him tell me
I am brave.
Good boy, or...
Saturday 25th June 2022 10:00 am
Starlight (re-post)
On a cold winter's night
They sat, hand in hand
Ravaged by time
Old in design
Two dinosaurs
In a digital age
Still in analogue love
Upon a wireless hub
Sitting on a park bench
Beneath a full moon
At the end of their time
Bodies poised to resign
As frost gathers around
They glisten as one
Hands intertwined
Old parchment defined
...
Monday 21st March 2022 6:03 pm
LADY WALKING
She walks a marathon distance each day,
passing people she has known for years
now unrecognizable, vague, like shadows.
She no longer engages with them,
struggling to distinguish between the faded faces.
She retraces each step, regardless of the weather -
always dressed for it. Back and forth.
The same handful of routes trodden in sequence.
The same street corner where she...
Monday 31st January 2022 10:16 am
The Indignity of Growing Old
I don’t mind getting old
Really
After all
I’ve put the years in
Its just the indignity of growing old
All those years gone by
Getting married
And having children
Not that I see them much
But those memories are worth their weight in gold
But memories can slip away
That’s the indignity of growing old
I didn’t really know
What old age would be like
...
Wednesday 11th August 2021 5:24 pm
I Wonder What They Pray For
As I watch them in the park
spry old couple, ninety odd
hearts re-bored and tooled up
with walking, hearing, seeing aids
a twinkle even in the eye
leaning close, holding hands
these taller, longer-living things
our ever-lengthening DNA string
she blushes, he grins, I wonder who
we must thank?
The gentleman scientist medicine man?
Pioneer, fingering his wai...
Friday 6th August 2021 11:40 am
How Did It Get So Late So Soon?
How Did It Get So Late So Soon?
The man who scared the ghosts away,
The woman who healed wounds with a kiss,
I think of them more nowadays
In sad and troubled times like this.
No longer there to hug the pain
From tired bones and broken hearts,
To shield you from the winter rain
That permeates where old age starts.
The back garden is over-grown,
The kitchen i...
Tuesday 29th June 2021 2:39 pm
Retire(la)ment
I now have time
To see all those
Little David’s
Lost on the streets
Of Liverpool, Germany
And many stations in-between
Lamenting a love gone wrong
Crying to himself
Too broken hearted
To pick up the phone
Hours upon days and years
Out of sorts
A rattle bag of fears
An assortment of misery
Freshly picked from the store
But now I have ...
Monday 21st June 2021 2:14 pm
Retire(la)ment
I now have time
To see all those
Little David’s
Lost on the streets
Of Liverpool, Germany
And many stations in-between
Lamenting a love gone wrong
Crying to himself
Too broken hearted
To pick up the phone
Hours upon days and years
Out of sorts
A rattle bag of fears
An assortment of misery
Freshly picked from the store
But now I have ...
Monday 21st June 2021 2:14 pm
Laissez-faire
At the foothills of vintage age
you feel perceptibly less somber
for there are only meager remains
of mostly forgotten days -
little to smile, rue or cry for
and an amorphous
yet obligingly finite future -
trifling to put together or fight for.
So dear Chandra:
here is a congratulation:
It must be awesome -
this imminent privilege of geriatrics
and this stolen bit of tran...
Wednesday 25th December 2019 8:20 pm
Behind the Stone
Behind the Stone
Upon the stone face of the world
the laughter of trees; the scars
of the battles of sun and snow.
Behind the stone,
the graves of lost streams
and printed in rock,
the fish of a swallowed sea:
locked in the ripples of time,
the clock of a billion years.
Upon the stone face of an old man
the scars of a war, the lines
etched in channel...
Monday 15th July 2019 9:37 pm
Days of Dementia
Some days I look at the mantelpiece
Where the dust gets thicker and the cobwebs grow
I’m not sure what to do about it, you know.
Every day seems like the same day
And even though it’s sunny outside
Sometimes the clouds get in the way.
I watch the TV but I don’t always take it in
And the flickering colours and sounds
Are something I don’t want around.
Every...
Tuesday 18th June 2019 7:31 pm
The Spark !
The Spark !
Old age comes upon you
like a creeping weed or vine
a subtle early warning
that you're running out of time
When we realized it had us
firmly in its grip
we decided to go fighting
so we really let it rip:
No more early nights
sipping tea and watching telly;
we bought the 'Kama Sutra'
and really gave it welly !
We cruised out to Austr...
Sunday 17th February 2019 3:22 pm
Waiting for peace
My heart breaks for those
in care homes
sitting patiently
waiting to die
Sometimes remembering
who you are
sometimes silently crying
You wait with them
day by day
When you look into their eyes
there is nothing there
no fear, no desperation
and above all, no hope
In-between doses of morphine
when the pain makes them scream
they beg to...
Monday 14th January 2019 5:59 pm
Shutters.
Shutters.
Winter has come, the day is cold.
The ‘day’; now only night and depression come in for a close.
He sits these 81 and alone.
“When will the sun return?” he says as he loathes.
“Why must the sun not here for me?” weekend by old withered bones.
Battered and broken, he fears what’s to come.
The shutters bang in the wind, he fears no more.
Filled with sombe...
Tuesday 3rd October 2017 6:24 pm
The Sixtieth Floor
So,
I’m in the elevator
Going higher and higher.
I’m taking the lift to the sixtieth floor
Though I can’t really see myself opening the door.
Still,
I often think about reaching that floor
I won’t be the first;
People have been there before.
I guess it’s all normal for a man of my age
It’s like reading a book and turning the page.
So,
I’m taking the li...
Tuesday 20th September 2016 7:18 pm
The Couple
They stand,
Hand-in-hand,
In their elder days,
absorbing view of sea, of sky, of sand,
of bird, of wave of weed,
Sky to the horizon,
Looking forward,
Peace, a shroud of the land,
surrounding them,
enshrining them,
At peace together in
their Elder Days.
Monday 23rd May 2016 10:09 pm
By the light of the local Spar
Eyes snapped shut in the street-facing bedroom
lit up by the light of the Spar
that floods it's white plastic windows
illuminating each passing car
In her curled up hands a faded old photo
crinkled,yellowing,torn,
but the hands,once so gentle,that hold this mementoe,
are as cold,are as granite, as stone
In came Sister with a meagre tea tray
barging in,past...
Sunday 31st January 2016 6:01 pm
DEMENTIA HOME
the listless ones gaze through
the downward surge of memory
in a postponement of death made decent
by caring.
hands are pressed like autumn leaves
into the never never book that
will be offered up with a soft cry
why all this, why?
in a bedroom a once favourite picture hangs
sheets are turned down
and while there is life
still life
lights will dim
...Sunday 27th September 2015 9:51 pm
Dead Man Walking Blues
If we are lucky, we grow old; if we are wise, we will remain forever young.
Sunday 18th January 2015 7:02 pm
My Back
My back is sending me a message
it says I'm getting old
That's why I don’t like the winter
My back doesn’t like the cold.
It’s not as if I’m in agony
And the pain is under control.
But my back could do with a massage;
Not reminders that I’m getting old.
I need to send back a message
I need to be rather bold
There’s no bloody need to remind me
-I know I’m ...
Tuesday 30th September 2014 5:49 pm
Growing Old Disgracefully
I want to grow old disgracefully and drive all my carers crazy,
I’ll swing from the chandeliers, I’ll overfill the bath,
Then blame it on my dementia whilst I stand there and laugh. I want to climb the rafters and play hide and seek,
I never want my bones to grow old, frail and weak,
I want to make the children laugh and ...
Tuesday 2nd September 2014 7:05 pm
Growing Old Disgracefully
I want to grow old disgracefully and drive all my carers crazy,
I’ll swing from the chandeliers, I’ll overfill the bath,
Then blame it on my dementia whilst I stand there and laugh. I want to climb the rafters and play hide and seek,
I never want my bones to grow old, frail and weak,
I want to make the children laugh and ...
Wednesday 20th August 2014 12:08 pm
Darling - Please Don't Call Me 'Dear'
I sit and wait for my Darling babe
To come and tell me
What
The fuck
To do.
She doesn't know I swear so much;
That I was once
A rebellious
Teenager
Too.
All my life - ALL of it -
It's still there, you know!
I know.
She sees only a segment, thinks I
Belong in care -
Or on death row.
I once walked miles my way,
All alone in shoes...
Monday 14th July 2014 9:14 pm
supping at the Silverback Inn
supping at the Silverback Inn
the glass stops halfway to its destination
and the sands of time are quicksand
as you survey the crowded saloon bar
in the gently creaking Silverback Inn
see him
the one with the paunch
I remember him
he was a bully
at school
a right hard case
look at him now
fat and old
the stained and sticky floorboards agree
whispering taunting mocking
all that...
Wednesday 5th March 2014 7:01 pm
Old Money (Fete Day at the Old People's Home)
It's hard for you to sit here and keep
your value. You are at the mercy
of other people's whims. 'Come on'
says the boss. 'Get these residents outside!'
You look bewildered at his brusque
command, compress your lips as if not
quite ready to be addressed in this
peremptory way. 'It's fete day' I explain.
'We're supposed to go out and spend.'
I sell y...
Monday 16th April 2012 9:37 am
The Tooth
It’s always there.
Each time I visit,
on the polished table
beside the glass of water
and inhalers.
The tooth.
I know they care for you
so how can they
leave it there?
Old and rotten,
broken, grey.
It been left for months
unless of course
it is a different one. . .
a different tooth.
I begin to recognise it.
...
Friday 1st April 2011 2:41 am
A time that glowed
Once it was a time that glowed:
turned-up collar, hurrying through glistening, early 60s streets.
A kind of muddling, room at Odsal Top,
or summat like that;
steam train always whistling in the distance
Dashing for the bus; overcoats,
shopping bags, windows steamed up,
conductor breathless.
Running the last yards from the corner,
hammering at the ...
Thursday 29th April 2010 7:32 pm
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