Do older people

Do older people

In residential homes

Walk out after dark

Are the doors locked

Flatscreens switched off

Horlicks and cocoa

Consumed with Mcvities

Before lights out

In bed by eight

Number six

Making a date for nine

With the woman from number seven

Who still has her own teeth.

He has a false leg

But she doesn’t need to know that

Not yet.

I would prefer a retirement village

Where they still get out and about

Take it upon themselves

To believe they are in the land of the living,

Dangerously liaised.

Individually situated

Semi-detached with a garage

And a Mini Countryman

Parked in the drive,

They can have a conservatory

And fitted kitchen.

Come and go,

Separately or together

Live independently

Instead of communally,

One step from a hospice

One foot away from the edge

Of the known universe.

Owner-occupiers still

Believe they belong

To the real world

Where they can

Chase fireflies

Recklessly abandoned

By their sensibilities

And on good days

Remember the way

To the gastro-pub on the corner,

Where they smoke dope

Bought from a boy on a bike,

For the craic.

It used to be coke

But it affects the sinuses,

Sneezing can have consequences

On the follow-through.

The gang sit outside

At wooden tables

Fitted with all-weather umbrellas

And drink fruit cocktails for fun

Laced with real alcohol

Feeling like teenagers

On the run.

Tearaways in suede shoes

Delinquents in leather jackets

Flat caps and cavalry twills.

The blonde woman in pink

Kicks up a stink

After a dram or two.

At ‘time gentleman and ladies’

They all roll home in a daze

Singing Purple Haze

To collapse

In all the wrong places

With smiles on their faces

Spark out

No doubt

Dreaming of happy days.