Tuesday 26 February 2019


Observing The Water Denizens

by Katherine L. Gordon


There are no young people here
laughter is raspy and scant
faces lift into smile-mode
retreat behind old grief lines
hooded eyes.
“How is your health?”  “How is your money?”
“Passing fair”  “Bank held”,  the answers.
Everyone lies.
One fellow says “I don’t socialize”
but I comment on his tool-box in the walker
and he fills with light.
Perhaps a social gathering planned
to learn the WHY of our surrenders.


* * * * *

"Observing The Water Denizens " is from Katherine L. Gordon's new poetry collection Caution: Deep Water. http://www.hmspress.ca/deepwater.html. The collection deals with the shock of leaving one’s home for the cultural phenomenon of retirement homes, expensive ghettoes for the vulnerable elderly.

Katherine L. Gordon is a rural Ontario poet, publisher, judge, editor and reviewer, working to promote the voices of women poets around the world, as they are now flowering into acclaim.  She has many books, chapbooks, anthologies and collaborations with fine contemporaries whose work inspires her.  Her poems have been translated and awarded internationally. 

1 comment:

  1. The why of our surrenders, oh mercy! I love tool-box diversion. Oh, getting old...

    ReplyDelete