Granny - Ros Willard

My gran is not like other people’s grans
who sleep through days as if already dead,
dreaming of the past with no future plans,
rehearsing for the endless night ahead.
Her hours are not spent watching TV soaps
in a rocking chair, knitting coloured squares.
She does not dwell on long-extinguished hopes
or offer up a string of fearful prayers.
She has not let her dark hair fade to grey
or worry dim the brilliance of her smile.
She has not yet forgotten how to play
or lost her sense of elegance and style.
She is the person I’ll aspire to be
in sixty years, when I am ninety-three!

Ros Willard