WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SMOOTH YOUNG FACE...?

                                                                            XCIX

What happened to the smooth young face
That I used to see?
An older well-worn countenance
Now gazes back at me.

What happened to those youthful
Sparkling bright young eyes?
They're now fine-webbed with sunray lines -
Perhaps they are more wise.

Where is the alabaster brow
Untrammelled - free from care?
The marble is much older now
With cracks showing here and there.

What happened to the dimples
That dented in each cheek?
Where is the glossy nut brown hair
Shinning, thick and sleek?

I never will see them again
But it might help a bit
If I moved my mirror as far from the light
As the size of the room will permit.

June 1988

To me

THE PEDANT'S LAMENT

                                              XCVIII  (98)

As I get older I become
More annoyed and aggravated
By the Americanisms and bad grammar
That have been created.

When you ask: "How are you",
People reply: "I'm good"
Their morals are not my concern,
Could I say that? Wish I could.

"Like" instead of "as if"
Has been around so long,
Many people do not even
Realise that it is wrong.

Putting others first
Is a relic of time gone by,
So you hear "Me and my friends"
Instead of "My friends and I".

Extra words are added:
"Get off of" and "for free"
"You know" - "like" - "I mean" -
All quite unnecessary.

"I was sat there" is claimed to be
West country dialect;
Another way in which our lovely
Language has been wrecked.

And then we have
The wayward apostrophe.
Put in where it's not needed
And left out where it should be.

Some say that grammar doesn't matter -
Speech is just to communicate,
There's a word for this dumbing down
And the word is "mutilate"


13.12.2009.