What keeps you here?

What keeps you here?

Holding forth

Taking up space

Better served

By those with something

More to say.

Listen to yourself

For goodness sake,

Griping on about this

And that

When the best of life

Has been set down

Well within reach,

Only for you to spurn

Its modest advance.

Fear brings

Its own reward,

Happiness is transitory,

Contentment

An easy word to say,

But slippery

To hold on to.

And even when

You could sit

With your feet up,

Reflecting on life

With a smile,

You choose to scowl,

Argue the toss,

And support the underdog,

Just for the hell of it.

How does it feel

To be a silver fox,

Jack in the box,

Armchair poet.

Shouting the odds,

Massaging egos

Or soothing

The broken hearts,

For the price of

A cup of coffee

And a digestive

Biscuit,

When you could

Be somewhere else,

And doing something

More worthwhile

With your time.

You could be more sociable,

Affable,

Get out and about

Meet people your own age,

Instead of staring

At a blank page.

What price

One more splash of wine,

Before you scratch a few lines,

And renege on the promise

You had in your prime.

When youth

Was about truth,

And conviction

Was more than

A time served word

In a sentence.

But you gave

That ideal up

When you drain a cup

And reach the end

In the nick of time,

With a curl of the lip

A throwaway quip

And the unforgivable crime

Of a two-a-penny

Better none,

Than just any,

Birthday card rhyme.