Ageing On The Northern Line 1963 - 2003 Poem by Stuart Roy McIVOR

In our youth we never aged
Insurance claimed pensioners
Not us - a lifetime's irrelevance
For someones elses fears
Like Mum and Dad.

And how sad for them too?
Contemplating in the gloom their future doom
Would not be mine
To spoil eternal youth
Or ever raise a ravaging criticism.

Loving and life
Absorbed me in groove-like intimacies
Of pleasure
Keeping age at bay on college campus
And ritualistic demonstrations on Grosvenor Square.

Leading to a degree in hand
An entry - then - to employment land
Forwarding ahead to a wife
And lifetime season ticket
Somewhere between Morden and Colindale on the Northern Line.

Children following in quick sucession
Whilst 'Mind the Gap'
Kept me in a trap
Full feeding them and mortgage too
For a life in suburban Worcester Park.

Oh! John Betjeman and your Metro Land
Was it really a subsitute -
For a life of 60's freedom
Or just a poster trap?
To hold in a millstone of proprietorial lap.

Taking its toll of free spirit
De-energising the soul
And making the morning shave
Reflect back in mirrored mockery
A lfe of hardened drudgery.

The silence now
Heralding in the gathering gloom
Contemplating where it all went wrong
Somewhere along the Northern Line
Like Mum and Dad.