Be old. Be very old.

Wear bedroom slippers and cardigans,

smoke a pipe, grow bald.

Buy a loaf of bread and count

your pennies very slowly at the till.

Eat boiled egg and burnt

toast and jam for every meal.

Complain bitterly about the young.

Sit on the sofa watching telly

till you are at least a hundred and one

or two or three. Be old.

Be very old with me.