Applause
 
The year revolves again
and our old folks return
to stagnate and await –
‘The Christmas Concert!’
 
Time to show off again
to this trapped audience
held hostage by osteoporosis,
muddled-ness, tinnitus.
 
Our homemade programmes tremble
in their hands,
writing like spiders and
girlish doodles –
‘You will be delighted
Over and over
By Rachel and Rosie
Rachel and Rosie!’
 
But with strings like nails
down a blackboard and
nasal notes that dropped
short, truth is we had
a lot to learn.
 
And we were so ungrateful for the way
their fragile bones and shaking palms
cracked like pellets of rain
smacking the dry ground after a drought –
 
for the way they rose the roof.

Elaine Baker

If you have any comments on this poem,  Elaine Baker  would be pleased to hear from you.