Dancing with the Stars

Dancing with the Stars

Elsie wore her hair

Under a nylon hairnet

It was still a rich dark brown

With just a dash of grey

At the sides, above her ears

The hair, though short at the back

Cut to her neck

Ran in tight regular waves

From one side to the other

A ripple effect

Something of a flapper she had been told

Back in the day

She had worn it that way

Even before she met Norman,

He had loved her at first sight

She didn’t change it

Even after he died

It was only recently she realised

Whilst looking in the old family album,

(The one tucked in amongst the cookbooks

And knitting patterns

In a basket on a shelf beneath the coffee table)

Just how much she looked like her mother

As if caught out of time

Everything had stopped when he died.

She poured the tea

Into one of the two cups

She always set out

One of them never used

But there was a comfort in it

Much as there was in the floral tea tray

The crochet cosy over the teapot

A wedding present from her Aunt Renee

And the radio

The Archers, as with Women’s Hour

Seemed to have been going since

She was a girl

Whatever happened to Saturday club

Brian Mathews and The Beatles

The clock on the Welsh dresser ticked

Remorselessly on

As she whispered

“Help…I need somebody.”

Fred played patience on a fold-out table

Covered in a green baize

He kept it in the cupboard

Under the stairs

Along with the vacuum cleaner

Which needs a new belt

But he doesn’t know where to find them

The bag needs emptying

Perhaps he will get around to it later

He can make a large scotch last over an hour

Before lunch

Not quite so long after

On a Wednesday he attends a meeting

At the University of the 3rd Age

A fancy name for an old people’s club

There were too many women there for his liking

Always wanting him to sit down with them

Pouring out tea in cracked mugs

With Hob Nobs and Digestive biscuits

The dry ones, without any chocolate,

Pulling him this way and that

Asking him to join the pottery class

Attend a poetry group

When all he wanted to do was play

A few hands of gin rummy

He and Agnes had liked Whist drives

Even though they all had played Bridge

He knew Whist was an older game

Played in grander times

When people dressed for dinner.

He liked the idea of heritage

The only television he liked to watch

Was the History channel

As well as the Antiques Roadshow on the BBC

Agnes liked Strictly come dancing

They would watch it together

Scoring each dance

Laughing when Les shouted ‘Seven’

They would both shout it themselves

Before him

He can’t watch it now

Even though he might want to

But likes a game of Patience

Whilst listening to Test Match Special

On the radio

As the clock ticked on the wall

Above the sideboard

With the photographs and china dogs

That might be worth something

Not that he would ever consider selling them,

He had put long-life batteries in the wall clock

It will run rabbit run

Until one day, like everything else

It will just stop.