#freeverse #poetry
Do you see me?
Or am I invisable with age?
Despite my mauve
hair and purple glasses
I feel disappeared.
People oblivious to
my cautious step with
stick or rollator*
Glued to their phones,
ear buds in, young people
try to walk through me.
They swing heavy doors
back in my face as I try
to get through them.
Do you hear me?
One day you too will grow old.
I hope your young
people treat you better.
I hope they acknowledge you.
Older people get pushed
out to the edges of an
uncaring society.
GP appointments are as
rare as hen's teeth and
you're disappeared there too.
They only want to dope
you up so you can barely
function - and you'll stay away.
Is this health care?
Or are they hoping we will just die?
I think they would like to
euthanase us into oblivion
as early as maybe seventy.
When you are seventy-one
this is a worry. We try to
live our lives independently.
No-one in their right mind
wants to be in a nursing home
waiting for the grim reaper.
Treat us the way you would
want to be treated when older.
Old age comes to us all.
Can you give me a smile?
Ask me if I'm OK, I am still here.
*rollator, a three or four wheeled walker with wheels, shopping bag and sometimes a seat – to assist with mobility*
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2026
VIXEN of VERSE 