Alice is old
In her ninety four year old body
Sometimes, Alice feels she has lived an eternity
But she is still young behind her bright eyes.
Her mind is still sharp
Ready to ever engage with, evolving modernity.

Visiting children can hardly imagine her childhood;
The whole family having to live within their means
No music, computers, mobile phones,
No calculators, or games on interactive screens
She and her friends sat at wooden desks at school
Where the teachers seemed, at the time, so very, very cruel.

Alice had a hard life, growing up
At fourteen her father made it clear;
Find a job my dear, or I fear we shall have to
Rent your bedroom to a lodger.
In nineteen forty four she married
Fifty years later she buried, her man.

Her three children forged a better life in Canada
She had visited each, but felt the journey, an anathema
So for twenty two years she has lived alone but;
Enjoys the company of local school children.
Who make a monthly visit to her neat tidy palace
Where they call her, dear Aunty Alice.

Mike