On Ageing

I’m hoping that most who read this will think ‘What nonsense. That’s not me. I’m getting on and I’m as fit as a fiddle’.

However, there will be some who know that whilst the best tunes are played on an old fiddle, they need more effort every day. This poem is about how some elderly people might be feeling.

On Ageing

Don’t you know?
I used to be a little girl, a spotty teenager, a wife and mum.
A daughter, a sister, auntie, niece.
Now what have I become?

Don’t you know?
I’m still the same as I ever used to be
It’s just that I’m past my sell-by date
Which is plain for all to see.

Don’t you know?
No-one smiles anymore and says
‘Hello love, how are you today?’
Have I become invisible?
Have I faded away?

Look at me, I’M RIGHT HERE!!
I’m old, no stupid or mad.
Talk to me about anything
Like, how has the world got so bad?

Don’t write me off just yet, if you please
I’ve still got some way to go
Before I drop off the planet
And my chariot swings low.

Don’t you know?
The ageing game is not for wimps,
Be assured there will be worse to come.
The wise Wise Ones had it right when they said
‘Youth is wasted on the young’.

Ageing can be cruel and hard,
I can’t make it make any sense.
A merry-go-round of prescriptions and pills
And pads for incontinence.

You’ll wake up in the morning
Around about half-past four,
Clutching your knee with a pain
That wasn’t there before.

The Doctor becomes your new best friend,
You see him often enough.
He’ll poke you and prod you and send you for tests.
Yes, life will become pretty tough.

So next time you see an ‘oldie’
Say ‘Hello’ to them, be kind, greet them do.
Don’t shirk away from their world of:

GREY HAIR, WRINKLES, FALSE TEETH, ACHES AND PAINS, ARTHRITIS (OSTEO AND RHEUMATOID), HIP REPLACEMENTS, KNEE REPLACEMENTS, HEART ATTACKS, STROKES, DEMENTIA, BRITTLE BONES, FORGETFULNESS, HEARING AIDS, FAILING EYESIGHT, GRUMPINESS BECAUSE THEY HURT FROM MORNING ‘TIL NIGHT (and these things are just for starters)

Because……if you live long enough
Don’t you know?
The same thing will happen to you.