Now Delicately Old

Here we live like
paupers again
cantankerous old men
look on spent lives
years numbering 83
to 153 -- happy?
They're sure they
married right --
has been a delight
full piece of study.
They mutter, giving voice
to a word describing idealists ...
watching television --
though denouncing it --
its effects on grandsons --
All we ever wanted
to do is write poetry and paint
Painting pictures no easy chore
and poetry must rhyme ...
They did share
the spaces together
who does the dishes?
indifferent to the causes
disturbed somehow,
but always well wishes.
Visions broaden
turned hard with
childbirth...
to live without this?
Young mothers clay molds
a natural process
young girl already holds
pregnant porcelain
but not accustomed
On a street corner
looking for a father
now choice hers
after biology billows
Shaken awaken
blood in the eyes
paupers' cries are bold
... young ones stir
and dogs bellow yelps
once young ...
... now delicately old.



Patrick Darnell (July 1976)