I hate old folks yet have to see them everywhere:
clogging up the buses, littering the parks,
impeding daytime shopping when they should be home in care.
They vacillate at ATMs and dawdle on the walkways;
their zimmer shopping trolleys cause a clutter in the cafes;
their shiny tortoise vehicles plough wide furrows in pedestrians
and looking in their faces you can see the kind of mess they're in.
I hate their sagging skin, their stooping postures, shuffling walks;
I hate their creaky movements, vapid gestures, halting talk;
I hate their dowdy clothes, their grey and thin, if any, hair
and all the things that start to fail with no hope of repair.
I hate the lack of beauty, any semblance of vitality
and hate to think that this will be my future as normality.
I hate to see what I will be (and probably am already).