THOUGHTS

I'm getting thoughts again
From way back when,
You know
When I was about nine or ten.
People spoke
Face to face,
Not by text or cyberspace,
Like driving rain
I feel this stinging pain,
Is dementia like being insane?
I know it's my age
What causes the rage,
Random thoughts
Scribbled on page,
Falling from the rat race
Just an unheard sage,
So I rattle my lyrical sabre
From skeletal cage.
I'll soon be nought
Earthen plot is bought,
Every breath fought for
Peace now sought.
So I remember the days
Of T shirt and short,
Of kiss chase in the playground
Teresa Smyth I caught.
We could have wed
It was never said,
We were both aged ten
She left our school
And my heart bled.
I stood by the swings
And I did cry,
A pretty girl had liked me
Now I wanted to die.
I sigh
Dunk a biscuit in my tea,
Here come more thoughts
More pictures of me.
Drinking beer
Showing no fear,
Out with my friends
To the clubs we steer,
We're in our teens
Skin spotty, not very clear.
The girls were keen
We dressed like James Dean,
Hair brushed back
Using Dads brilliantine,
My God!
Did I wear those clothes?
And was that a moustache
Balanced under my nose?
That was so wrong
It didn't last long,
I started doing exercise
As I wasn't very strong.
We went to the gym
We lifted a few weights,
We still looked really puny
We still looked right states.
I wonder
Where my friends are
Do they think the same as me?
Do they remember our youth?
And the memories I still see.
I've finished my tea
The biscuits have disappeared,
I snap back to the present
And I feel a little weird.
These thoughts visit me often
The ghosts perform on stage,
My eyes moisten and soften
My heart rattles in skeletal cage.

Phil Hall September 2013

Photo of (from left to right)
Me, Kevin mc Cormack, Andy Rogers. Aged 18 in a pub in Newquay Cornwall 1979.