Running too fast
With wobbly legs
And icy cheeks
And tiny frozen feet
I'm falling
Tripping into pain.
Helping hands
With kind voices laughing
Picking me up,
Masking concern,
Not like the laughing
Soulless wolf.
Then I go again
Tricking pain
Keeping it at bay
Before I learned how to pray,
Learning too slowly
I'm falling
Hands down this time
On all fours
And behind me as always
The wolf again,
Blood shot eyes
Scouring for stragglers
Teeth stained with blood
In anticipation.
Helping hands
Picking me up
With kind voices laughing.

Father you led me down the path
I knew at first
But then it veered off
Crossing others I didn't know existed.
Sometimes the path was too steep and narrow
Dark one minute then too bright to see the next
But these weren't seconds
They were the years
I spent always looking back
Trying to get my bearings
Searching for signs,
And I have never felt so lost.
You led me down the path
And left me there.
So now I must go on.

A hundred and forty
Happy birthday me!
Funny thing is I don't feel
A day over a hundred and ten.
So I'm going to spoil myself rotten
Bacon, sausage and egg
Flavour crisps for breakfast
Five cheese pizza
Flavour crisps for lunch
And asparagus in wine and steak
Flavour crisps for dinner.
Crisps! I love them
They changed my life,
But personally, for me
There is never enough salt.
I always carry some with me
So I can have a little sprinkle.
And Maddy is over the Avian flu now
So we can meet up.
She was quite ill for ...
Oh, a good few hours
I told her not to feed the swans
But that is her all over, reckless
And she's funny about her age,
As if it's some great secret or mystery,
She always tells me she's ten years
Younger than me
But she's got to be at least a hundred
And fifty, if she's a day.

Here we come
Clanking up the path,
We are the jailers.
Find a closed door
No problem
It's not even locked.
On we go
This one is though,
No problem
Try the first key
Easy
Keep moving,
Another door already
First two keys don't work
Third one, perfect fit
Keep going.
Another door
And nothing fits it,
Strange.
Ah a window
Opens easily.
Climb up two storeys
A bit scary
Just make it
Hope it is worth it.
Keep going
Next door is padlocked
It wants us to know
It is locked,
No keys for this.
Do a swop with the people behind us,
They've got what we need
Maybe ours will help them
Who knows?
On we go
Another padlock
And no windows.
Turn around
Back out the door
We came in,
Keep going.
Another door
No lock, just won't open
Strange
Turn around.
The door we came in
Is locked too
Side door, see where this goes,
More padlocks.
Then a door opens
In front of us
Opens easily
Opens even as we approach it
The last door always does.

Five minutes into the journey
Someone in the back pipes up
We need to go back
I forgot my phone.
Not ideal, but fair enough.
Nobody ever says
Oh wait I forgot my body.
Before sandwiches and suncream
And all the other essentials
Bodies are top of our lists.
They get to go everywhere,
See everything,
They are our pal, our best friend,
Or could be.
We even try to find someone to love them,
How selfless is that?
But it usually happens
Sometimes early on
Other times later,
Wariness and suspicion creep in
We would rather keep them
At arms length
Because even when they are doing their best
We know what's coming.

Not Creedence Clearwater Revival
Have heard nothing through the grapevine,
I am dreaming white sands
The jewel in the crown.
I want to wake up at the Hyatt Regency
With nothing to worry about
And be the first down
To the lounge chairs and beach umbrellas.
As long as the lizards don't get me.

I want to wake up with nothing to worry about,
Head out for some paddle boarding and swimming,
As long as the jellyfish don't get me.

I want to wake up with nothing to worry about,
Go across to Honeymoon Island
For some hiking and shelling,
As long as the lightning doesn't get me.

I want to try out all this marvelous food,
Eat my fill on the beach
As long as the ants and cockroaches don't get me.

I want to go on a beach walk,
As long as the alligators don't get me.

I want to go dolphin watching,
Take a trip on the pirate boat,
Try some skiing and scuba diving,
Anything to take a break from the spiders
If not the snakes.

I want to visit the marina
And marine aquarium
As long as the mosquitoes and double headed bugs
Don't get me.

I want to be the last person with you
On the pier
And hope the sunset gets us.

The summer is all hey
I'm hot, check me out,
Look at me,
But the winter
Is otherworldly.
With its cold and rain
And sleet and snow
And ice and fog
And frozen mornings
And long dark nights
It's always trying to tell us something more,
That's where the story is.