Jenny Joseph The Haiku Poet With Her Warning Poem by john tiong chunghoo

warning

putting the nerves into
the unnerving
golden years (john's lines)

warning -
do you want to be:

striking the remaining years
with a stick
along the public railing?

pressing the alarm bells
too late
in life?

an old woman
in purple with a red hat
which doesn't go?

spending pension
on brandy
and summer gloves?

and buttering a lie
you have not even money
for butter?

spending the retiring years
on pavement gobbling up
samples in shops?

perhaps memories of
youth will rain to comfort
the heart

like:

wearing slippers in
the rain to pick flowers
in neighbors' gardens

learning to spit
and wear terrible shirts
growing more fat

eating three pounds
of sausages
at a go

surviving on
only bread and pickle
for a week

hoarding pens and pencils
and beermats and things
in boxes

reality sets in now
to set a good example
for the children

to not swear in the street
clothes, rent, friends,
dinners and papers are prerequisites

a tall order - it's time
to practise
for the golden years

so people won't be
too shocked seeing an old woman
wearing purple