The List

The List

What on earth shall I do today, the rain is pouring down,
Shall I stay in and watch TV, or shall I go to town.
Don’t want to do a puzzle, don’t want to read a book,
Don’t want to do get the Hoover out, don’t even want to cook.

The house is quiet, the day is long, all urgent jobs are done,
Someone told me … when you retire, you’re going to have some fun.
It hasn’t actually worked out like that and I’m blowed if I know why,
There should be lots of things to interest me, lots of things to try.

Some people say they love it, they say ‘retirement is a blast!’
But .. retirement life seems very slow, pre-retirement life .. so fast.
Just sitting wishing days away, doesn’t seem to be quite right,
Should I succumb to boredom? Without putting up a fight.

My children told me to write a list, of things I’d like to do,
So I put pen to paper and started to write .. I wasn’t convinced … it’s true.
The list became quite lengthy, there was a lot of wishful thinking,
When I’d finished, I read it through, but I felt my heart start sinking.

Canoeing up the Amazon, sky diving from a plane,
Back packing in the Andes .. achieving SOMETHING .. once again.
Every thing I’d written either cost more than I could afford,
Or my body wouldn’t stand the pace, I’d probably end up in a ward.

The trouble is, with all the things, I used to love to do,
I did them when I was younger, when my fuses never blew.
So now, I must cut my cloth accordingly, appreciate my age,
Learn to love and cherish the book of me, each day’s another page.

My body’s earned retirement rest, it’s brought me through to date,
It’s just my mind that thinks I’m still eighteen and that nothing is too late.
The list did make me realise, that those days have gone for mountaineering,
So I’m going to fight the boredom curse,  by doing some volunteering.

© Martin Silvester 18/1/2016

If you enjoyed this, you may also be interested in reading my first book of poems called Last Apple on The Tree