Deckchair Collapsed - Paul Heaton

This deckchair collapsed

This maybe or perhaps

The route that sadness maps

Through those long and awkward gaps

Those broken fairy wings

Those tangled puppet strings

Those roundabouts or swings

The heartache indecision brings

Life, my girl, will take away that optimistic skip

Stick its big foot out and try deliberately to trip

Substitute young hope with arthritic hip

Take your salad days and attach them to a drip

That bannister we slide

The wild horse we ride

That throws from side to side

The rough, the smooth, yet to decide

The cowardly, the bold

The fireworks they hold

The overkill, the undersold

Already told, yet to unfold

Life, my girl, will take away that optimistic skip

Stick its big foot out and try deliberately to trip

Substitute young hope with arthritic hip

Take your salad days and attach them to a drip

That fluent Double Dutch

That feeling out of touch

That nonsense or nonsuch

Not quite enough or just too much

Life, my girl, will take away that optimistic skip

Stick its big foot out and try deliberately to trip

Substitute young hope with arthritic hip

Take your salad days and attach them to a drip

This deck chair collapsed…