MARY JENKINS


Two poems


On Being Forty


this is a time
the perfect time
for love

nature      our genes
or dopamine
are saying go go go

this is the time
for love
for procreation
(last chance)
it's a time to be wild
a time for euphoria

this is the man
you are the woman
this is the time

when you could die for it
die for love
knowing
that nothing no moment
could be better
than the now
when you are together

tricky nature
trickster people
pushing us like this
no conrol of population

like my favourite
fictional characters
mostly women
I said yes to love

"yes I said yes I will Yes"



On Being Eighty


oh how the clichés roll
off our ageing tongues

time goes so fast
it happens so quickly
things you could do yesterday
aren't as easy today

you can imagine the stories
of doctors
of medication

friends' parents are aged
living longer
wanting to get rid of things
their children don't want

they plan to downsize
but it's become so hard
you hear them say

it's becoming so hard
you hear the children say

it's killing us

that's a shock

I must clean out (again)
give more away
make lists
decide who should get what

I've no desire to reach ninety
expensively maintained

but I follow advice
& get the handrails fitted