Don’t Get Old

Don’t get old I was told

By an elderly lady

Pushed in a wheel chair

By her aging struggling

Husband.

Once we climbed mountains

She smiled

As her husband and I

Helped her from her

Chair to a softer one,

And her waiting cup of coffee.

Don’t get old she

Repeated.

We’ve gone from house

And garden to one room

And flowers on the sill,

We used to plot climbs

Now we try to find the

Easiest way back home.

Don’t get old they both said,

Once we were rescued

By helicopter after a fall,

Lucky someone found us.

They hesitated and looked

At each other in a misty

Mountain stare.

A fleeting feeling

Momentarily clouded in,

As if they wished …

The rescue team had

Failed.

© Stephen Nesbitt