No cure

There is no cure for ageing

Death may be incurable, but growing old is not an illness.

And some are better at it than others. .... The secret?

Think yourself younger than you really are:

On a crowded bus or tube, offer your seat to a young man

Help a traffic warden across a busy road

Grow cannabis in the commode

Rocking chair? Stick it up on the roof

Discreet tattoo or a gold false tooth

Design a website, invent an app

Buy your clothes from Topshop and Gap

Take up Zumba, forget to nap.

Time flies they say, but it’s us that fly

Time sits on its hands as we rush by.

And life has a way of gathering speed

So seize the day, we’re a special breed.

For in the stifled yawn of a brain

The slip of a cell

The dim of an eye

The fluff of a heartbeat

You are old.

Welcome to the fold.

Roger McGough, The Cure for Ageing