I Don’t Want to Grow Old - Poem

I Don’t Want to Grow Old

I don’t want to grow old
To be treated no longer as a person or individual, but as a thing that is either ignored or laughed at
To get too frail to look after myself and to be pushed into an old people’s home
Where they feed me plain, half-cooked food and wash me and leave me half dry
Where they leave me sat on the toilet for hours because they are too busy to see to me or where they give me other people’s clothes to wear because they have washed and lost mine
To be sat in the same room all day, in the same chair with the same view isn’t my idea of fun
To see the same people, to watch the same television shows day after day
Slowly the people around me will die one after another
Soon it will be my turn, but until then even if I can no longer walk, hear or see
I am still a person and most importantly I am still me



This piece was inspired by my time spent at Stratton Hospital, a hospital for the elderly.