Alice - A Poem

This poem is inspired by PHILLYDREAMER's weekly poetry challenge "The Faces of Death".

This is the second in my series of three poems showing three very different faces of death, from my experiences of working with the elderly living in care.

This poem is about Alice, one of the few ladies in the care home who reached the grand old age of 100 years old! We threw her a huge party for the occasion, and then a few weeks later she died. Alice was an amazingly strong lady with a good heart, a wicked sense of humour and a tongue that would bite if she thought you were being foolish.

Being from "Up North" (which is how people from southern England describe anyone who is born and raised North of the Midlands) her humour was sometimes misunderstood, but I got it!

Alice!

Where do I start?

Northern lady with a huge heart,

A smile that would brighten any room

And a tongue so cutting

You would soon

Know

If you had been a fool.

Alice,

A century upon this Earth!

100 years since her birth,

I told her that she would receive

A telegram from the queen.

"I'd wipe me arse with it" she said

And shocked, I laughed

But inside a dread

Of something else I seemed to know

From signs I'd seen months ago.

Alice,

Truly was my friend,

We'd chat and laugh

Till evenings end

And she'd go to bed

With a whiskey mac

But a change I saw,

There'd be no turning back.

As others who had come before,

She heard the voices

She did adore.

She would sit and chat when all alone

But she could see what was going on.

It was like

she

was only

Half

In our world

See?

The friends she had

Invisible to all

The doc said

Hallucinations

Sometimes crawl

Into peoples lives

Towards the end.

But I knew better

Alice

My friend.

Some people are afraid of them,

Not realising they are their friends,

Come to comfort

And show the way,

As they approach their dying day.

Alice knew

It's what she'd say

If you asked her

How are you today?

Alice

Her birthday party was a scream,

But Alice

She was in a dream

For Deaths whisper

At her door

Was calling her,

She was just waiting for

This day to end

To live this long

She could contend

With a little longer on this Earth

To please her loved ones

And friends from "Up North"

Then the day did come

When Alice said

My time is done!

The crazy power of the mind

To end it all

When it's time.

She went to sleep her

Final rest,

And peacefully

(She deserved the best)

Alice

Left this mortal coil

As easily as we might boil

A kettle

For the tea she loved

Her time had come

To look above.