UP TOWN ON A SATURDAY MORNING

Our little town is in the doldrums. It was always a modest town
with appealing and useful shops. Now, after these last three years
of pandemic and closures, it still fights back with humour and resilience
and I still love it.

UP TOWN ON A 
     SATURDAY MORNING

This morning,
When the old ladies
Wearing their duvet coats
And bad attitudes
Banged their walking sticks
On the hard pavements,
Complaining about the cold,

The old men
Fastened up their jackets
Trying to work out
How they had got so old
Without anyone warning them.
Every now and again
Hustling into the Bookies
To place a Bet
That, ten-to-one, would win them
Enough to buy back
Their days of being young
And meaning something
In the world again.

Well, this was when
That lad and his lass
Began to sing,
Coins rattling
Into their empty money hat
Lying on the cold ground
In front of them.
Enough to buy them hot coffee,
A slice of warm pizza
And a bit of encouragement
To keep going, anyway,
Until they were well past
Any danger of growing old
With lined and cheery faces.
Or not.

For ‘old’ was a word not in their lexicon
And they had no intention
Of it ever claiming their attention.
As if!  Eh?!! As if!

I don’t think so!

©2023 Gwen Grant

PRIVATE KEEP OUT!  by Gwen Grant
published by Penguin Vintage  Children’s Classics
available in paperback and as an ebook