Let Me Not Die An Old Girl's Death    by  Paula McKay

(after Roger McGough)

let me not die an old girl's death   not in a rocking chair
'doesn't she look peaceful like that' death
not a curtains drawn with the sun going down in black armbands death
nor laid out cold in the front room with background organ music
and me   stiff as the pipes
no father o'leary giving me the last rites
(when I didn't ever have any rights in the first place)
and not a between the starched sheets in a smells of pee nursing home
calling softly I'm coming to join you fred death
(and him thin as a rake by then anyway)
no blessing in the end death   or propped up with pillows
so's I could look out over the yard and see the two pigs
rummaging through the rubbish death
no mrs swift from next door and all the other neighbours downstairs
making tea and drinking whisky   while I'm up there gasping my last breath
                  and I don't want a holier than thou and free from sin
surrounded by candles and wilting flowers death either
with kind last minute words to people I never liked anyway
none of their noisy children coming to say a last goodbye to me
when I couldn't stand the sight of them while I was alive death
                  let me go out when I'm a hundred and four   gnashing my gums
conducting loud beautiful music ( beethoven would be good) flashing my
painted fingernails and overthetop dyed hair   smoking cigarettes
that are bad for my health   while drinking french cognac
and me singing and kicking and showing everybody
my bright red knickers

© Paula McKay