Author Topic: Time out for this popular poem  (Read 53 times)

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Offline agate

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Time out for this popular poem
« on: May 21, 2017, 04:55:24 pm »
This poem was appearing on Tshirts and mugs a while back, and there are Red Hat Societies all over the place, inspired by the poem. Overexposed though it has been, the poem has something to say that is worth considering in this era when older people are often subjected to assessments of their mental stability on the part of relatives and well-meaning friends who want them "put" somewhere "for their own good," usually a nursing home offering little that looks like home to them and not much nursing either:

Quote
   WARNING
                by Jenny Joseph (1961)

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
MS Speaks--online for 17 years

SPMS, diagnosed 1980. Avonex 2001-2004. Copaxone 2007-2010. Glatopa (glatiramer acetate 40mg 3 times/week) since 12/16/20.

 

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