Josie Davies
Old Habits
Puffed out with horse-hair platitudes
new-coat-for-old in the dingy hall
hooked on intentions too good for comfort
with too many pockets for money that isn’t,
so many buttons for fingers that can’t –
handsomely tailored but hanging neglected.
Stiffened with age, coat at attention,
old-coat-for-new hooked on habit.
Old man bone-cracking down through the morning
happy-go-button and pocket-free.
Knowing will cradle him, lining his fears;
snags without hurt rip through thought;
holes know their place and cannot confuse
as he settles himself in the folds of the years
weaving together the strands of the past,
losing himself in the warp and weft of it.
Page(s) 42
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