Two Serious Looking Old Ladies Poem by Francis Duggan

Two serious looking old ladies out walking arm in arm
They don't have happy faces they seem to lack in charm
They do seem quite judgemental the way they stare at me
My eyes can only tell me what my eyes believe I see.

Two serious looking old ladies in their early eighties maybe
A smile to their faces it would seem would not come easily
Yet who am I to judge them for how they do appear
Of strangers they may harbour some quite well founded fear.

That each stranger they meet trigger in them they may be victims of crime
For serious crimes against the elderly many in jail serving time
'Tis not an easy World to live in for the fragile and the old
Some towards people who are ageing are indifferent and cold.

I smiled and said hello to them as they slowly shuffled by
But my greeting met with silence they did not make a reply
They did not at all seem happy at me they did only stare
To them I was just not to be trusted a stranger from the World out there.