NEW TRICKS

First published in April 2022

A bit late
to learn new tricks,
unfortunately
you have no choice.

First, you give up
your car, your bright
blue Mazda, a lifeline
or so you thought.

But you learn
to live without it.
Then new glasses,
thicker, stronger.

Now electronic
gadgets, even these
fail to do the job.
Frustration.

Now, of course,
you have no way
of recognising friends
in the street.

Your man
becomes your eyes,
tells you who's who,
takes your hand.

But one way
and another, you
still write, because
write you must.

Making poems
is in your DNA,
so you adapt, invent
roundabout ways,

learn new tricks.