Before I Go. Poem by Tony Adah

Before I go guard me in my ways
Do not let me be vegetable
Or a balded vulture unable to prey
Do not let pain rage in my joints
And make me creak like I was
Made by a carpenter

Before I go let me walk my way
To my last house
And not a corpse still breathing
And unable to lead myself anywhere
Gropping and stooling and pissing
In one place with hair like the fibre
The technician removed from the back
Of my old fridge.
Do me a favour
Let me have people's sympathy
Not that I was helpless when age
Took its toll but I went on this journey
A strong man to travel.