WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE…
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on whisky and summer gloves
and satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along the public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
and learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and wat three pounds of sausages at a go
or aonly bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and coaster and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
WWe must have firends to dinner and read the papers
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know we are not to shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple….
