PROBABLY POOR LATER

by Hugo Williams, poet

No more getting better. 

No more waking up one morning

feeling like your old self again.

Let’s call what’s-her-name, 

see what’s going on.

None of that any more. 

No more hitting the street

with a spring in your step

and your knee all right.

Don’t even think about it. 

You’d like to go out of course,

to see if you still exist, 

but you can’t obey yourself now,

it hurts too much. 

You sit in your chair all day,

turning a funny colour. 

Where’s that list you made? 

Someone takes you by the arm 

and says how well you’re looking.

You haven’t changed a bit! 


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