The pavement waters parted…
No need for a Moses:
On one side an old man
Engaged in an eternal struggle
Trying and failing
(Or succeeding so excruciatingly slowly
It was impossible to tell which)
To evenly balance the two meagre shopping bags
On each side of his rickety old handlebars
As if just an ounce or two either way
Might topple him from his precarious perch,
His bike frame,
Tailored to the length and strength of his youth,
Now seeming to have outgrown him
By a good two or three sizes:
His ‘S’ to the stainless steel and chrome ‘XL’.
On the other,
Another was lovingly easing his lady’s delicate bones
Into the passenger seat of their car
As softly as one might set down
A see-through bone china cup upon its genteel saucer.
The mountain ranges of older ages
Were casting their first faint shadows
Upon our middle ageing valley.
The metaphor wasn’t lost on me:
We would be raised up
Before we’re finally laid low –
That much was plain to see……..
Tony Jolley
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/pavements-and-partings/
